STATE OF JHARKHAND vs UMA PRASAD — Supreme Court of India, 20 May, 2009

ITEM NO.104 Court No.4 SECTION XVII

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

CIVIL APPEAL NO(s). 600 OF 2007

STATE OF JHARKHAND & ORS. Appellant (s)

VERSUS

UMA PRASAD Respondent(s)

(With appln(s) for vacation of ex-parte stay and office report ))

Date: 20/05/2009 This Appeal was called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA

HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE B.S. CHAUHAN

(Vacation Bench)

For Appellant(s)

Mr.Manish Kumar Saran,Adv.

For Respondent(s)

Mr. Navin Prakash,Adv.

Mr. Mohit K. Shah,Adv.

UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

The appeal is dismissed in terms of the signed order.

(Ganga Thakur) ( Phoolan Wati Arora )

P.S. to Registrar Court Master

Signed order is placed on the file.

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 600 OF 2007

Versus

This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 13.12.2005,

whereby the Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court, dismissed the Letters

Patent Appeal filed by the appellant.

The writ petition was filed by the respondent claiming herself to be the widow of

late Birendra Prasad with a further prayer for releasing the death-cum-retiral

benefits of her husband, who died in harness on 8.10.2004, while working as

Assistant in the Secretariat, Dept. of Art. Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs,

Jharkhand. The writ petition was disposed of by the learned Single Judge on

27.4.2005, directing for release of the death-cum-retiral benefit and also the salary, if

any due, together with interest. The appellant aggrieved by the said order filed a

Letters Patent Appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court, which was dismissed by the order dated 30.12.2005, as against which this appeal is filed.

Learned counsel appearing for the appellant has submitted before us that there are

certain claims of the department against the deceased arising out of appropriation by

him of some amount belonging to the Government.

However, on consideration of the records, we find that late Birendra Prasad, the

deceased was put under suspension on 26.9.1998 on the order of the Commissioner,

Chhotanagar Division, Ranchi, and by another order dated 16.6.2000, his suspension

was revoked. Thereafter, he died on 08.10.2004 in harness while working as

Assistant in the Secretariat, Dept. of Art. Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs,

Jharkhand. That being the position and since the learned counsel for the

respondent is unable to show us any order passed by the competent authority issuing

any charge-sheet against the said deceased, there could be no recovery of any amount

from the retiral benefits of the deceased Birendra Prasad. There

is no record to show that any departmental proceeding was drawn up by the

department against the deceased before his death. We find no error in the judgments

passed by the Division Bench and by the learned Single Judge of the Jharkhand

High Court. There is no merit in this appeal and the same is dismissed.

We are informed that during the pendency of the present appeal the

respondent was paid an amount of Rs.1,00,000/- (rupees one lakh) which shall now

be adjusted against the dues payable to the respondent. All the service benefits and

other dues which are required to be paid to the respondent here shall be paid within

a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.

New Delhi, May 20,2009.

STATE OF JHARKHAND vs UMA PRASAD on 20 May, 2009