Supreme Court Imposes Rs. One Lakh Cost On TN Govt For Unnecessarily Challenging Former Sanitation Worker's Pension

Recently, the Supreme Court of India imposed an exemplary cost of Rs. One Lakh on the School Education Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu for challenging the pensionary benefits of a former sanitation worker." (We) are inclined to dismiss the application seeking condonation of delay as also these petitions with the imposition of exemplary costs where unnecessarily this matter relating to pensionary rights of a Sweeper-cum Sanitary Worker is sought to be dragged in further litigation", a Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy said.The Court asked the State Department to deposit the amount in the welfare fund of the Supreme Court Employees Welfare Association within four weeks.The Bench also noted that the application seeking condonation of delay cannot be accepted. The State government stated that the delay was owing to the time taken to obtain the legal opinion and for translating certain documents."...and the petition seeking special leave to appeal against that order is also delayed by a period of 154 days. The application seeking condonation of delay in filing special leave petitions is bereft of any cogent reason for such a delay...However, no sufficient cause is shown."The State Department was challenging an order of the Madras High Court allowing pensionary rights to the Respondent and rejecting the former's review petition.The Respondent was engaged as Sweeper-cum-Sanitary Worker in 1992 on a consolidated pay of Rs. 105/- p.m. His services were regularized from December 2, 2002 after High Court passed directions to that effect. He attained the age of superannuation on June 30, 2012. Since then, he had filed several writ petitions, the Bench observed."Thus, in the 2 present case relating to pensionary benefits of respondent No. 1, who had rendered his services as Sweeper-cum-Sanitary Worker and who superannuated on 30.06.2012, have gone through several stages of litigation including the writ petitions, intra-court appeal, and even a review petition."Before parting with the order, the Bench also granted liberty to the petitioners to recover the amount of costs from the persons/officers who were responsible for pursuing and sanctioning such "frivolous" petitions.Case Title: The Principal Secretary & Ors. Petitioner(S) Versus K. Lakshmanan & Anr. | Diary No(s). 34957/2022Read about a similar order passed earlier - 'Govt's Might Against A Safai Karamchari?': Supreme Court Dismisses State Of Tamil Nadu's Plea Against Sweeper's RegularisationClick Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Imposes Rs. One Lakh Cost On TN Govt For Unnecessarily Challenging Former Sanitation Worker's Pension

Rintu Mariam Biju

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