I have gone through the judgment .
The
sum and substance of the judgment as based on a number of Supreme
Court judgments is that interest on gratuity cannot be denied(1) except
when the delay is attributable to the fault of the retired employee
& (2) permission for such withholding is obtained from the
controlling authority..Overstay in staff quarters is not deemed to be a
fault of the employee after retirement unless it is unauthorised..
In
LIC except PF benefits & GSLI benefits like gratuity,commuted
pension & pension are not released till the employee/officer
concerned vacates the staff quarters and no interest on gratuity is
paid where payment is made beyond 30 days.
Arising
out of this judgment, I am of the view that LIC Pensioners who were
denied interest on gratuity on account of overstay in staff quarters
beyond 30 days can join together and file a Writ Petition in High
Courts in their jurisdiction.Mostly this situation happens for officers
at Mumbai and other Metropolitan cities.The cost -benefit of
litigation has to be assessed before resorting to litigation.
Kind regards.
C H Mahadevan
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