A writ petition by a former Regional Officer challenging orders directing him to deposit Rs.50,000 with 9% interest for failing to remit group insurance premium after an employee's death. The court found him responsible, noting a similarly situated employee's writ and LPA had been dismissed, and dismissed the petition.
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.9975 of 2012
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Mahendra Kumar Srivastava S/o Late Ram Bachan Lal Permanent Resident of Vill/P.O.-Bagarahi, P.S.-Ramgarh, Distt-Kaimur
... ... Petitioner/s
... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Sanjay Kumar Ghosarvey, Advocate For the Respondent/s : Mr. Ranjeet Kumar Pandey, Advocate ======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH KUMAR VERMA ORAL JUDGMENT
Date : 23-04-2024
Heard Mr. Sanjay Kumar Ghosarvey, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Ranjeet Kumar Pandey, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Bihar State Scheduled Castes Co-operative Development Corporation Limited.
following reliefs:-
(i) For setting aside the order dated 17.05.2011 vide letter no. 913 issued by the respondent contained in Annexure-13 whereby the petitioner has been directed to deposit the amount of Rs. 50,000/- from the date of death of Late Babban Choudhry i.e. 12.11.2001 till the payment is made @ 9 % simple interest per annum.
(ii) For setting aside the order dated 17.08.2011 vide letter no. 1511 contained in Annexure-15 issued under the signature of respondent whereby the petitioner has been directed to deposit the amount of Rs. 50,000/- along with interest within 15 days.
(iii) For setting aside the order dated
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30.03.2012 vide letter no. 599 contained in Annexure-16 issued under the signature of respondent whereby the Administrator, Jharkhand State Scheduled Castes Cooperative Development Corporation, Ranchi has been requested to deduct the amount of Rs. 50,000/- along with interest @ 9 % since 12.11.2011 from the salary of petitioner.
(iv) Any other relief or reliefs to which the petitioner is entitled may kindly be given.
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The corporation was maintaining one account for contributory provident fund for all the employees of General wing as well as for the employees of Engineering Cell. For the purpose of Group Insurance, three different accounts were opened, one for the employees of General wing of the Corporation and two accounts for the employees of the two division of Engineering Cell.
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deduction from the salary of the employees from the district offices of the Corporation. The records of two divisions of the engineering cell were handed over to the Regional Officers, Ranchi and Patna for the purpose of safe custody only. He further submits that when the petitioner was posted as Regional Officer, Ranchi at the relevant period made a request to the head quarter at Patna to direct the account office to deposit the deducted amount of employees of engineering cell in their respective accounts by the head quarter since the amount as well as schedules were being sent by the District Office to the head quarter directly for the reason that after the closure of the engineering cell the employees of this cell were posted in different district offices, the Regional Officers were not given any financial or executive powers related to closed engineering cell and the Regional Officers were not aware of the payment of the salaries of such employees as well as deduction schedules were not being communicated to the Regional Officers.
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the head quarter since the amount as well as schedules were being sent by the district office to the head quarter. The petitioner has also written letter to the Secretary of the Corporation vide letter no. 164 dated 10.04.2001 saying that he has no information with respect to deposit of the amount of CPF as well as group insurance of the employees of closed engineering cell and after discussion on telephone the petitioner had deputed one employee, namely, Pawan Kumar, Account Assistant of engineering cell to co-operate in getting deposited the deducted amount in their respective accounts. The petitioner being the Regional Officer was not given any monetary power relating to closed engineering cell and therefore, the then Managing Director of the Corporation had given a specific order for payment NSC amount vide letter no . 1037 dated 08.07.2004 on the query made by the petitioner. In the meantime, one Babban Choudhary who was employee of engineering cell was posted at Muzaffarpur to the post of Chowkidar died on 12.11.2001 and the family members of Babban Choudhary could not be given the group insurance amount due to premium not being deposited in time by the Corporation.
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to deposit the premium of group insurance of the employees of the engineering cell and the petitioner had not deposited the premium of group insurance. It is because also that the schedule of deduction of premium and CPF from the salary of the employees were directly sent by the District Office to the head quarter and the same was not communicated to the petitioner so he has not deposited the premium of group insurance and thereafter, the an internal inquiry was conducted to ascertain the employees who are responsible in not depositing the amount of premium of group insurance and Mr. R.B. Singh informed the authority concerned that the petitioner was responsible for that. The said R.B. Singh has submitted his report vide letter no. 15 dated 30.08.2010 to the then Managing Director in which he had discussed that since the premium of group insurance amount were sent by the predecessor Mr. Anil Kumar Chourdhary to the LIC therefore, this petitioner was held responsible for not remitting the premium of employees of engineering cell as it was paid earlier. Then an explanation was asked by the respondent no. 2 from the petitioner vide letter no. 2278 dated 26.10.2010 in which the petitioner was directed to submit his explanation within a period of two weeks. The petitioner had submitted his explanation on 10.11.2010 in which the petitioner
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has categorically stated that the then Director had inquired the matter in this regard and some of the employees of the accounts were found responsible and the amount was also recovered from them. Apart from the inquiry is eye wash only to make the petitioner guilty whereas the material facts were not placed to Mr. R.B Singh not it was asked from the petitioner therefore, the petitioner has denied that he is not responsible for not depositing the premium of group insurance amount of the employees of engineering cell. And he has categorically stated that the petitioner was not given any monetary power relating to employees of engineering cell nor any such order was given to his predecessor. The explanation submitted by the petitioner was not accepted and the recovery of accidental claim of Rs. 50,000/- along with interest of 9% from the date of death of Babban Choudhary i.e. 12.11.2001 and accordingly the petitioner was directed to deposit the amount with interest within 15 days vide letter no. 913 dated 17.05.2011.
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order has been filed with totally biased attitude with malafide intention only to save the skin of the concerned authority.
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failure from his responsibility of timely deposit of group insurance premium due to which the dependent of late Babban Choudhary was deprived of full amount from LIC after death.
(Rajesh Kumar Verma, J)
Vanisha/-
| AFR/NAFR | NAFR |
|---|---|
| CAV DATE | N/A |
| Uploading Date | 28.05.2024 |
| Transmission Date | N/A |
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the petitioner, a Regional Officer of the Corporation, could be held liable to deposit Rs.50,000 with interest for failure to remit group insurance premium of a deceased engineering cell emplo
Whether the impugned recovery orders dated 17.05.2011, 17.08.2011 and 30.03.2012 were justified given the petitioner's explanation and lack of monetary powers.
Mahendra Kumar Srivastava
The Administrator, Bihar Rajya Malyanil Bhawan
The Secretary, Bihar State Scheduled Castes Co-operative Development Corporation Limited
Rajesh Kumar Verma
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
