G SUBBIAH Vs. ACCOUNTANT GENERAL AANDE TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the husband of one S.Nagajothi, who was working as a Pharmacist in the Medical and Rural Welfare Service under the control of the third respondent. Unfortunately, the petitioner's wife expired on 15.08.2005 and the petitioner has become eligible to get all other terminal benefits in accordance with the rules.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that even though his wife had passed away as early as on 15.08.2005, her death -cum- retirement gratuity [in short "DCRG"] were not settled in her favour and there was a delay in the grant of such amount. It was stated by the petitioner that after delaying the matter for one and half years, he was paid DCRG only on 05.02.2007 and hence, he is entitled for interest in terms of Rule 45-A of the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978. Since he was only paid DCRG and interest has been omitted, the present Writ Petition has been filed.

(3.) When the matter came up for hearing on 15.04.2009, this Court directed the learned Additional Government Pleader to take notice for the respondents. Accordingly, the third respondent has filed a counter-affidavit, dated 13.10.2009. In the counter-affidavit, it was stated that in the application form received by the Medical Officer, the date of death of the deceased wife was wrongly mentioned as "16.08.2005" instead of "15.08.2005". When this was pointed out, we took time to furnish the correct date of death and as soon as this clarification was made, the Accountant General sanctioned the DCRG within one month and the amounts have been paid and, therefore, there is no willful delay on their part. In paragraph No.7 of the counter-affidavit, it was averred as follows:-