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High Court fines Collector for dereliction in duty – delay in recovery of workmen’s compensation

High Court fines Collector for  dereliction in duty – delay in recovery of  workmen’s compensation



“If there is no harvesting of the crop, the crop rots in the field and becomes inedible, further the inflation is so high that the value of money deprecates day by day. The value of the money, which was awarded in the year 2010 has been reduced to a large extent on account of inflation. The rate of interest awarded does not commensurate with the high rate of inflation”

ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT
A writ petition was filed seeking a writ of mandamus commanding the District Magistrate, Lalitpur to comply with the order of the Commissioner, Workmen's Compensation dated 8th April, 2010, by which a sum of Rs. 1,85,915.00 was awarded as compensation to the petitioner along with interest @ 10 per cent. Pursuant to the said award, a letter dated 19th February, 2011 was issued by the Commissioner to the Collector praying that the amount may be recovered from the Executive Engineer of the U.P. Power Corporation Ltd., Lalitpur.
The High Court noted that the the petitioner, was made to run from pillar to post for justice and for recovery of the amount. That the Collector and his agents have adopted a very soft stand in recovering the amount from the respondent who is an instrumentality of the State. It took 15 months for the Collector to issue a citation and, in spite of the citation being issued, no effective measures were taken to recover the amount under the provisions of U.P. Z.A. & LR Act. Such lackadaisical attitude and practice adopted by the Collector is totally deprecated. It is a quite apparent that dual standards are being adopted for recovery of amount against instrumentalities of the State on one hand and against private persons on the other hand. The fact remains that the petitioner, who has an order in her favour is unable to reap the benefit of the award.
 A curious stand was adopted by the learned Standing Counsel that the petitioner has not suffered for the delay in the recovery of the amount inasmuch as, up-to-date interest has been recovered from the Executive Engineer. In the opinion of the Court, the amount has to be recovered immediately so that the benefit can be reaped by the petitioner at the earliest. If there is no harvesting of the crop, the crop rots in the field and becomes inedible, further the inflation is so high that the value of money deprecates day by day. The value of the money, which was awarded in the year 2010 has been reduced to a large extent on account of inflation. The rate of interest awarded does not commensurate with the high rate of inflation.

While disposing the petition  since the amount has now been recovered and granting liberty to the petitioner to apply before the commissioner Workmen's Compensation for release of amount, the Court slapped a a cost of Rs. 20,000 each shall be paid by the Collector as well as by the Executive Engineer. 

Source: Labour Law Reporter 2013

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