The high court has dismissed an appeal by the state government pertaining to payment of encashment of leave and other retiral benefits to a retired engineer of water resources department and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on it.
Unhappy with the appeal, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Sameer Jain on September 18 said, “Frivolous appeals are being preferred by the state government without any justifiable reasons and this is a glaring example of such appeal.”
Harish Kumar Vyas, an engineer of water resources department, retired in 2017 and approached the high court to get his post-retirement benefits in 2018. A single bench ordered that the petitioner was entitled to get his leave encashment benefit and also retiral benefits with an interest of 9% per annum.
SS Raghav, additional advocate general, asserted that the benefits of interest that was granted to the petitioner was not due towards him since there was an enquiry pending against him at the time of his retirement on June 30, 2017. The said inquiry continued till the order of punishment was passed by the punishing authority, Raghav added. Hearing both the sides, the division bench upheld the single bench’s judgement.
