Dr. Suman Bala v. Municipal Corporation of Delhi

1. The petitioner moved the Central Administrative Tribunal[1] by way of OA 2218/2023, seeking a direction to the respondent to pay, to the petitioner, arrears of gratuity, commutation of pension and pay of arrears, with which the petitioner alleged, had not been paid to her despite further representation.

2. By judgment dated 17 May 2024, the Tribunal held the petitioner to be entitled to be paid the said arrears along with interest. The penultimate paragraph 6 of the judgment of the Tribunal reads as “the Tribunal” hereinafter under:

3. The petitioner has approached this Court, aggrieved by two aspects of the final judgment of the Tribunal.

4. Apropos the interest awarded to the petitioner on her retiral benefits, the petitioner contends that the interest ought to have been awarded from the date of retirement of the petitioner and not commencing from the expiry of three months from the date of the judgment of the Tribunal. The second objection of the petitioner is with respect to the rate of interest. The petitioner seeks interest at the rate of 12.[5] % p.a. throughout.

5. Apropos the first aspect, we are in agreement with the petitioner that the petitioner would be entitled to interest from the date of her retirement.

6. We, therefore, direct the respondent to the extent of grant of interest to the petitioner, therefore, the impugned judgment would stand modified by holding the petitioner to be entitled to interest from the date of her retirement and not from the date of expiry of three months from the date of the judgment of the Tribunal.

7. However, insofar as the rate of interest is concerned, we have noticed in our recent decision in MCD v Bijender Singh[2] that the Tribunal is, in different orders, awarding interest on different rates. We, therefore, have remanded similar matters to the Hon’ble Chairman of the Tribunal to constitute a Bench to attempt to arrive at a uniform rate of interest on retiral benefits.

8. We are told that the said matters are listed before the Tribunal on 19 February 2025.

9. In that view of the matter, this petition is disposed of in the following terms:

(i) The petitioner is held entitled to interest on her retiral benefits from the date of her superannuation.

(ii) Insofar as the rate of interest to which the petitioner would be entitled, the OA is remanded to the Tribunal to be heard on 19 February 2025 along with other matters involving similar issues.

(iii) Till then, however, respondents are directed to comply

(iv) If, consequent to the remand proceedings before the

Tribunal, the petitioner is entitled to any further interest, the interest would be paid by the respondent to the petitioner, on the basis of the time granted by the Tribunal for the said period.