Moushumi Bhattacharya - (1.) All the writ petitioners before this court pray for a Mandamus commanding respondents, to repay the alleged overdrawn amounts to the petitioners along with interest and for interest on the delayed disbursement of pensionary benefits.
(2.) These writ petitions have been clubbed together since a point of delay has been taken by the State and a refusal to repay the amounts overdrawn by reason of the petitioners not making any attempt to cure the delay by way of an explanation in the writ petition. Although matters involving repayment of overdrawn amounts are ordinarily disposed of overlooking the delay on the part of the petitioners approaching this court (if any), this court considered it important to deal with the issue in the light of judicial pronouncements of this court as well as of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in similar matters.
(3.) Learned counsel appearing for the State has relied on three decisions for the proposition that courts would be reluctant to afford relief to a petitioner where there has been inexplicable laches on the part of the writ petitioner in seeking such relief. These decisions are; State of Maharashtra Vs. Digambar, 1995 AIR(SC) 1991, Karnataka Power Corpn. Ltd. Vs. K. Thangappan, 2006 4 SCC 322 and Chandi Prasad Uniyal Vs. State of Uttarakhand, 2012 8 SCC 417. Counsel places emphasis on paragraph 14 of the last decision. According to counsel, the petitioners in all these cases retired from service as teachers of their respective schools sometime in the late 90's. Their Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) were issued in the late 90's when the petitioners found that amounts have been shown as overdrawals and the same was deducted from the gratuity amounts payable to the petitioners. The petitioners approached this court by filing their writ petitions in 2018-2019. Counsel submits that the writ petitions are singularly devoid of any averment explaining the reason for the petitioners failing to seek redress during the intervening twenty years (an approximate figure has been taken for convenience).;