- (1.) I have gone through the draft judgment prepared by my learned Brother, I agree with His Lordship's finding. I have thought I should add few words of mine with His Lordship's judgment. The respondents, at the relevant time, had been working in the Metal and Steel factory, Ichapore, 24-Parganas, (North ). They undertook travel tour from calcutta to Manali while availing themselves of leave travel concession facility, which commenced from 20th to 22nd April, 1998. They withdrew 90% advance for meeting their expenses of journey. They travelled by bus operated by the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation. After completion of journey they submitted their claim for reimbursement of remaining 10% of the cost of travelling by, bus. The applicants, before us, instead of granting aforesaid 10% balance claim directed the respondents to deposit the entire advance amount of travelling expenses which had been withdrawn earlier on the plea that the said journey was undertaken in violation of the DOPT order dated 9th February, 1998. Now subsequent fact has been considered and recorded by His Lordship, so I do not repeat it. The whole question is whether the aforesaid Circular dated 9th February, 1998 is applicable in case of the applicants or not. The learned Tribunal after going through the facts found that the said Circular had not been circulated to the employees individually before they undertook their journey and it was only brought to their notice after completion of their journey. The aforesaid fact finding has not been challenged by the applicants before us. It is also observed by the learned Tribunal going by the language of the said Circular dated 9th February, 1998 that the respondents before us have not violated the same as it has been certified by the West Bengal Tourism development Corporation Limited that the said travel tour was operated and/or conducted directly by the said authority which is a West Bengal government undertaking and not by a private party or person under the permit No. 9860/sta/wb dated 17th April, 1998. . The relevant portion of the said DOPT Notification dated 9th February, 1998 is reproduced hereunder : "as the Ministry of Finance etc. are aware Central Government employees are entitled for Home Town LTC once in a block of two years and All India LTC once in a block of four years. The Leave travel Concession is not admissible for journey by a private car (owned, borrowed or hired) or a bus, van or other vehicle owned or operated or chartered by private operators. However, travel by private buses operating as regular service from point to point as regular intervals on fixed fare rates with the approval of Regional Transport authority/state Government concerned, is admissible. Similarly, journeys by chartered buses are admissible for LTC only in those cases, where the tour is wholly operated and conducted by the India tourism Development Corporation (ITDC)/state Tourism Development corporations (STDCs) either by their own buses or buses taken on hire from outside. In such cases, it is to be clearly certified by the itdc/state Tourism Development Corporations concerned that the tour was actually conducted/operated by them and not by any private party/person. "
(2.) THEREFORE, the intent and purport of the above Circular is very clear and it suggests that the tour by private operator is not permissible. The language of the Certificate issued by the West Bengal Tourism development Corporation, in my view, fully satisfies the conditions mentioned in the aforesaid Rule. The said Certificate is not questioned though it was produced at a later stage for inspection. Therefore, there was no difficulty to allow the claim of the respondents'before us.
(3.) UNDER those circumstances, I think the learned Tribunal has come to a correct finding and granted appropriate relief. Accordingly, the judgment and order of the learned Tribunal is upheld.;