CAT: Release retirement perks to loco pilot

Chennai: The Central Administrative Tribunal has directed Southern Railway to release all the retiral benefits to a loco pilot. The railways had withheld the benefits following a dispute over the status of community (ST).

The petitioner, Kasilingam of Villivakkam, submitted he was working as a loco pilot in mail and express trains in Southern Railway. While in service, an issue arose concerning his caste status. He claimed he belonged to Konda Reddy (ST) community.

The Southern Railway referred the matter to district collector for considering the genuineness of the caste certificate obtained by him earlier. The district level vigilance committee, which probed, concluded he did not belong to the Konda Reddy community. Based on this, his certificate was revoked in April 2007.

Challenging this, he filed a petition before Madurai Bench of Madras high court, which directed him to approach state level committee to ascertain the genuineness of ST certificate. Hence, he sent all documents to the appropriate authority and attended a few proceedings. Meanwhile, he retired from service on June 30, 2013.

In the petition, he sought a direction to the concerned authorities to release all the retiral benefits, which were withheld, in view of the matter pending before the state level committee. He was given only provisional pension. Judicial Member of CAT, Justice G. Rajasuria, said pendency of proceedings before state level committee cannot be a bar for railways to release the benefits to the applicant.
Accordingly, he directed Southern Railway to release all the retirement benefits to him in two months.