High Court raps Haryana for ‘apathy’, imposes Rs 75,000 costs each in 3 cases

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped the State of Haryana for its “apathy and insensitivity” in denying compassionate benefits under a 2019 scheme before imposing Rs 75,000 costs each in three similar cases.

In one of the pleas before the high court, a widow was seeking directions to the State and other respondents to release compassionate financial assistance under the Haryana Civil Services (Compassionate Financial Assistance or Appointment) Rules, 2019, following her JBT teacher husband’s untimely death.

The Bench was told that the rules were notified on August 2, 2019, for “granting compassionate financial assistance or appointment to the family of a government employee who dies or disappears while in service”. A provision stipulates that a “family member” was eligible for compassionate appointment if the deceased had completed five years of regular service and had not attained the age of 52 years at the time of death.

Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya observed that the admissible benefits were withheld on the basis of advice from the Chief Secretary not to release the amount until a final decision was taken regarding her husband’s appointment. The State counsel told the court that appointments of JBT teachers pursuant to an advertisement issued in 2009 were disputed, “on the ground that some of the selected candidates had cleared HTET examination by fraud”

Justice Dahiya asserted the petitioner’s husband, irrespective of the allegation, was appointed as JBT Teacher and served the department for about nine years. No action of any kind was taken against him during the tenure. Even criminal proceedings of any kind were never initiated against him.

“Despite these facts being in the knowledge of the respondents, the due amount of compassionate assistance and ex-gratia grant was not released to the petitioner. It has been kept pending without offering any plausible explanation, which shows their apathy and insensitivity to the plight of a person who is entitled to the claimed benefits under the 2019 Rules. The mandate under the Rules to consider and pay the assistance as well as the grant has been violated with impunity, forcing the petitioner to live in difficult financial condition and file the instant petition,” Justice Dahiya asserted.

Allowing the bunch of pleas, the Bench directed the State to release the due financial assistance as well as ex gratia grant to the petitioners, along with interest at nine per cent per annum from the date the amount became due till actual payment. “The petitions are allowed… the petitioners shall also be entitled to costs of the petitions which are quantified as ₹75,000 per petition, to be paid by the respondents. The directions shall be carried out within a period of four weeks of receiving a certified copy of the judgment,” the Bench ordered.