Full Text
HIGH COURT OF DELHI
Date of Decision: 13.11.2019
JOGINDER AND ORS. ..... Petitioners
Through : Mr. Ankur Chhibber, Mr.Harkesh, Mr.Bhanu Gupta and Mr.Nikunj Arora, Advocates.
Through : Ms. Avnish Ahlawat, Standing Counsel (Services) for GNCTD of Delhi with Mr. N.K. Singh, Advocate.
MOOL CHANDRA ..... Petitioner
Through : Ms. Avnish Ahlawat, Standing Counsel (Services) for GNCTD of Delhi with Mr. N.K. Singh, Advocate.
VANVIR SINGH AND ANR. ..... Petitioners 2019:DHC:5927-DB
Through : Ms. Latika Chaudhary, Advocate.
SUMAN RANA, ASI ..... Petitioner
Through : Mr. Zoheb Hossain, Additional Standing Counsel for GNCTD with Mr.Vivek Gurnani, Advocate.
RAJESH YADAV ..... Petitioner
Through : Mr. S. Vijay Kanth, Mr. S.
Krishna Murthy, Advocates.
Through : Mr. Nitesh Kumar Singh, Advocate for Ms.Avnish
Ahlawat, Standing Counsel for GNCTD (Services)
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI
JUDGMENT
CM APPL. No. 38499/2019 (condonation of delay) in W.P.(C)
4595/2019 For the reasons mentioned in the application, the delay of 63 days in filing the reply/counter affidavit by respondents is condoned.
The application stands disposed of.
With the consent of the parties, these five writ petitions are being disposed of by a common order as a common question of law arises for consideration in these petitions. The facts of all these cases are somewhat similar. Accordingly, the facts of each writ petition are not being noticed separately.
2. In all these cases, the petitioners had taken benefit of the Leave Travel Concession (‘LTC’) and had travelled to Sri Nagar. All the petitioners did not comply with circular dated 16.09.2010 which we reproduce as under: “No. 19024/1/2009-E.IV Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Expenditure *** New Delhi dated the 16th September, 2010 Office Memorandum Subject: Guidelines on Air Travel on Tours/LTC. This Department is receiving repeated references seeking clarifications with regard to purchase of Air tickets through authorized agents and relaxation for travel by Airlines other than Indian Airlines. The following guidelines may be noted for compliance:
1. On Official Tours:
(i) For travel by Airlines other than Air India because of operational or other reasons or on account of non-availability of Air India flights, individual cases for relaxation to be referred to M/o Civil Aviation, as stated in this Ministry's OM No. 19024/1/2009-E.IV dated 13.07.09.
(ii) Air Tickets may be purchased directly from Airlines (at Booking counters/Website of Airlines) or by utilizing the services of Authorized Travel Agents viz. M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company, M/s Ashok Travels & Tours.
2. LTC:
(i) Travel by Air India only.
(ii) In Economy class only, irrespective of entitlement.
(iii)LTC-80 ticket of Air India only to be purchased. (iv)Air Tickets may be purchased directly from Airlines (at Booking counters/Website of Airlines) or by utilizing the services of Authorized Travel Agents viz. M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company, M/s Ashok Travels & Tours and IRCTC (to the extent IRCTC is authorized as per DoP&T OM NO. 31011/6/2002-Estt.(A) dt. 02.12.09).
3. LTC for J&K:
(i) Relaxation to travel by Private Airlines to visit J&K while availing LTC is available to all the categories of Govt. employees, including those entitled to travel by Air [DoPT OMs No. 31011/2/2003-Estt.(A-IV) dated 18.06.10 and 05.08.10 refer].
(ii) For purchase of Air tickets, however, the procedure as given under para 2
(iv) above should be followed.
4. All Ministries/Departments of Govt. of India are requested to strictly adhere to these instructions. Sd/- (Karan Singh) Under Secretary to the Govt. of India
3. Admittedly, none of the petitioners booked the tickets directly from the Airlines (at booking counters/offices/websites of Airlines) or from the three authorized travel agents viz M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company Ltd., M/s Ashok Travels & Tours and IRCTC. After undertaking travel, bills were submitted and amounts were released. Thereafter, a common show cause notice was issued to all the petitioners. A sample show cause notice in W.P.(C) No. 4595/2019 is reproduced below: “Subject: Regarding recovery of irregular payment of LTC. During the inspection of Audit of North-East Distt; for the period of 2013- 2014 and 2014-2015 conducted by the AGCR party. AGCR party has recommended for making recovery from the following officers.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Sl. Rank & Belt No. & PIS No. Recovery Reason of Posted │ │ No. Name Amount recovery │ ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1. Ct. 1403/NE, 73,528/- Pvt. Agent Krawal │ │ Visvender 28981906 Holiday Nagar │ │ Kumar Planner │ │ 2. HC 1087/NE, 1,10,292/- Pvt. Agent Zafrabad │ │ Parmod 28941957 Indian │ │ Kumar Travels │ │ 3. HC Vanvir 682/NE, 28940023 91,910/- Pvt. Agent Krawal │ │ Singh Arjoo.com Nagar │ │ 4. HC Rajesh 1472/NE, 62,360/- Pvt. Agent PA B1 │ │ 28941592 C.T. │ │ Travels │ │ 5. HC Anand 609/NE, 28892590 18,382/- Third child Seemapuri │ │ is not │ │ W.P.(C) 3106/2019 & connected matters Page 5 of 14 │ │ 2019:DHC:5927-DB │ │ Kumar allowed │ │ 6. HC Ram 159/NE, 28931598 14,705/- Third child Krawal │ │ Kumar is not Nagar │ │ allowed │ │ 7. Ct. Naresh 1234/NE, M.S. Park │ │ Chand 28930879 │ │ 8. Ct. 3204/NE, 33,000/- LTC Bhazanpura │ │ Mukesh 28101826 advance │ │ Kumar not │ │ adjusted │ │ 9. Ct. 3053/NE, 67,000/- LTC Soniya │ │ Bablesh 28102515 advance Vihar │ │ Kumar not │ │ adjusted │ │ 10. Ct. Ajit 2669/NE, 57,853/- Pvt. Agent CPSP │ │ Singh 28081509 Akbar │ │ Travels │ │ 11. ASI 2257/NE, 73,528/- Pvt. Agent CAW Cell │ │ Suman 28883074 Delhi Air │ │ Rana Movers │ │ and travels │ │ & tours │ │ Pvt. Ltd. │ │ 12. ASI 2153/NE,29890092 73,528/- Pvt. Agent Distt. Line │ │ Naresh Down │ │ Kumar Town │ │ Travel │ │ 13. Insp. D-I-623, 16820061 20,500/- Pvt. Agent ACP/HQ │ │ Narender Taj India │ │ Singh Tours │ │ Delhi │ │ W.P.(C) 3106/2019 & connected matters Page 6 of 14 │ │ 2019:DHC:5927-DB │ │ The above police personnel directed to deposit whole amount of own │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
14. We are of the considered view that the circular is meant to be obeyed and followed scrupulously and that there was no reason for the officers to not have complied with the terms of the circular. While the initial stand of Mr. Chhibber that since the petitioners had already travelled and paid the amount to their travel agents, the full amounts should be reimbursed to them is without any force; in our view, interests of justice would be served if the respondents reimburse to the petitioners their claims towards LTC as per the amounts payable according to the price of air-tickets charged by authorized travel agents; and recover/adjust/deduct from the petitioners the amounts in excess of such price, that may have been paid to the petitioners.
15. Accordingly, we modify the order of the Tribunal to the extent that the respondents would be entitled to recover the ‘difference’ of the airfare as per the price offered/charged by authorized agents and the airfare paid to the petitioners.
16. With the above directions, all writ petitions and the accompanying applications are disposed of. G.S.SISTANI, J. ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI, J. NOVEMBER 13, 2019 j