Family pension no bar on compassionate jobs: HC

HYDERABAD: Justice K.S. Sarath of the Telangana High Court ruled that a wife of a deceased employee receiving a pension does not disqualify the child from being considered for employment on compassionate grounds. The judge allowed two petitions filed by Thotte Jaswant and Arvind Reddy. In both cases, the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (Genco) refused to consider their application for a compassionate appointment. The widows of the deceased employees were receiving pensions, Genco said, and the petitioners were not indigent persons. Analysing the scheme, Justice Sarath upheld the plea that sanction of family pension to the wife of the deceased employee cannot come in the way of compassionate appointment. The judge said: “There is no provision to take into consideration the family pension while providing employment to the dependent of the deceased employee who died in harness.” Accordingly, he directed the authorities to reconsider the cases of the petitioners without taking into account the family pension being received by the family of the deceased employee.

 

Compensation for accident victims hiked by 25%:

Justice M. G. Priyadarshini of the Telangana High Court enhanced compensation payable to a victim of a road accident by 25 per cent for permanent disability, from ₹19 lakhs to ₹27 lakhs. The High Court allowed an appeal filed by the victim, S. Srinivas, a resident of Lalapet, who while riding a two-wheeler was hit by a car owned by a teacher, V. Nageshwar Rao on December 1, 2011, near the Metro Rail station at Hitec City. The accident resulted in post-traumatic paralysis and the petitioner suffered permanent disability. The claimant said he was entitled to compensation of ₹30 lakh on the grounds that the disability was 50 per cent as certified by medical evidence. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded ₹19 lakhs, including under other heads of payment. In his appeal, Justice Priyadarshini pointed out the tribunal was not right in denying the amount under the heads of pain and suffering, attendant charges, physiotherapy expenses, loss of earnings during treatment; and also those of amenities in life. On the issue of the degree of disability, the judge said: “It is clear that in spite of continuous treatment and physiotherapy, the claimant is unable to work and move and has been bedridden. Such being the case the medical board assessed the disability of the claimant at 50 per cent. This code is inclined to fix the functional disability at 75 per cent.”

 

Employees terminated illegally entitled to old dues:

Justice Surepalli Nanda of the Telangana High Court declared that once the termination from service was shown to be illegal and the employee /workman concerned was regularly employed he would be entitled to full backdated wages provided he was not gainfully employed after his wrongful termination. The judge allowed a writ plea filed against the TSRTC by assistant depot clerk Y.B. Raghavendra Rao. The petitioner was aggrieved by the action of RTC in reinstating him between May 1992 and November 2011 “without back wages” for terminal benefits and continuing in service. The services of the petitioner as a conductor ran into hurdles when the Nizamabad collector complained that the petitioner had obtained a false caste certificate. Raghavendra Rao then got engaged in a long legal battle on the veracity of his caste certificate and its validity was upheld in 2011. Based upon the same, he was reinstated into service approximately after 19 years and was relieved in 2013. His grievance was a denial of benefits from the initial date of appointment till superannuation with proper pay fixation for the stated period of illegal removal. The judge allowed the petition. She ruled that the petitioner was entitled to back wages and the connected service benefits as the RTC had failed to adduce evidence that the petitioner was gainfully employed during the period.