HC ruling on claiming gratuity by government servants

The Madras High Court Bench here has held that a government servant not permitted to retire from service, even after attaining the age of superannuation, pending conclusion of departmental proceedings, shall not be eligible to claim even a part of the gratuity amount due to him or her.

Justice S. Vimala passed the order while disposing of a writ petition filed by M. Moorthi seeking a direction to Thoothukudi Collector and other revenue officials to disburse 80 per cent of his gratuity amount working out to Rs. 5.16 lakh pending the conclusion of departmental proceedings initiated against him.

Although the petitioner relied upon Rule 60(1)(c) of the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978 to substantiate his claim that even those facing departmental enquiry were entitled to receive a part of gratuity amount, the judge said the rule would apply only to those who had been allowed to retire from service without prejudice to the departmental proceedings.

Rule 60(1)(c) states that no gratuity shall be authorised to a government servant until the conclusion of departmental proceedings and passing of final orders.

However, a proviso to the rule states that no such gratuity shall be withheld with respect to a government servant who had been permitted to retire without prejudice to the proceedings.

Further, a second proviso to the rule states that if the proceedings had been initiated with respect to causing pecuniary loss to the government, then the gratuity can be disbursed after deducting the maximum computed financial loss to the government if the servant was allowed to retire from service without prejudice to the proceedings.

Hence, the judge agreed with an Additional Government Pleader that in any case, allowing a government servant to retire from service was a condition precedent for claiming either full or part of gratuity and therefore, those who had not been allowed to retire from service could not claim payment of gratuity.



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