'Pension is continuing cause of action' : No limitation for employee to seek release of pensionary benefits: CAT

Srinagar, Sep 14: Noting that there is no limitation for an employee to seek release of his or her pension and pensionary benefits being a continuing cause of action, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Srinagar has asked Kashmir University (KU) to release the withheld gratuity of its retired employee.

A bench of M S Latif (Judicial Member) said this while deciding a plea filed by 67-year-old Abdul Gani Teeli, whose contention was he was initially appointed as a daily wager in KU and subsequently regularized in the year 1993 as Assistant Xerox Operator in General Administration. Teli sought for his voluntary retirement in the year 2018, according to his plea.

The tribunal asked the KU authorities to consider and release the withheld gratuity of Teeli within six weeks positively in case there was no legal impediment.

Citing the law laid down by the supreme court in various cases, the tribunal has made it clear that in case the unpaid gratuity is not paid in favour of Teeli within the period of six weeks, the varsity shall be liable to pay him 6 percent interest for any further delay.

Teeli through his counsel Onkar Singh had contended that he was being given his monthly pension but a part of the gratuity had not been released in his favour for the past more than 6 years. He, as per his plea, had made representations before the competent authority for release of his left-over gratuity but the same had not been disposed of.

Opposing his contention, counsel for KU, Asif Maqbool, submitted that Teeli’s plea was time barred as it had been more than five years that he had not approached the Court. “As such in terms of the law, he is debarred from filing the instant application,” he said.

In counter argument Teeli’s counsel said that “release of pension and gratuity is a continuing cause, as such, limitation would not come in the way”

Rejecting the KU Counsel’s objections, the tribunal relied on the   judgment of the Supreme Court decided in the Civil Appeal titled as M. L. Patil (Dead) v. The State of Goa wherein the apex court has held that “there can be no limitation where an employee seeks release of his pension and pensionary benefits as it is a continuing cause of action”.

The tribunal observed it is a beaten law that pension and other allied benefits are not a bounty but they are a right of an employee and as such this has attained the status of a fundamental right in terms of the Article 300 (a) of the Constitution.