Aparesh Kumar Singh, J. - (1.) HEARD learned counsel for the parties. The petitioner herein approached this Court earlier in WP(S) No. 4573/2013 after his retirement on 31.12.2009 while working as SOM(SG)/Safety Officer in GOCP Kua OCP Colliery under Basta Colla Area of BCCL with a claim for payment of house rent allowance for the period from October, 2004 to December, 2009 and for refund of the amount paid as house rent allowance from December, 2006 to February, 2007 which was recovered from his salary. The said writ petition was disposed of without getting into the merits of the petitioner's claim by observing that the respondents were required to take a decision on the petitioner's representation after verification of necessary facts by the judgment dated 18.11.2013 enclosed as Annexure -1. The petitioner's claim has thereafter been rejected by the impugned order as contained in Annexure -13, dated 5.2.2014 passed by the General Manager, Basta Colla Area of BCCL. The petitioner's case in the writ petition and as made out before the respondents in his representation is that he has been residing in his own house at Dhanbad since 1985 without availing any official accommodation and was also paid house rent allowance till October, 2004. The petitioner relied upon certain documents enclosed with his representation as also an office memorandum dated 12.10.2004, Annexure -14, to claim that HRA would be admissible to the Executives like the petitioner. The respondents have rejected his claim on the ground that in the year 2004 he was posted as a Safety Officer and was required to live in the vicinity of working place as per provisions of Coal Mines Regulation framed under the Mines Act, 1952. Therefore, he was allotted a quarter bearing No. C -9 at Bera Officers' Colony where he had not shifted. Since the petitioner was posted as a Safety Officer and that it was an emergency cadre post, his services should have been required in the mines where he was required to live in the official accommodation and not at a distant place at his residential house. Since the petitioner did not shift in the official accommodation despite allotment, his house rent allowance was stopped.
(2.) IT is the respondents case that before he was posted as a Safety Officer in 2004 he was holding the post of Superintendent of Mines and stayed at his own residential house, which entitled him to avail his house rent allowance till 2004. However, after allotment of quarter in 2004 the petitioner was not entitled to avail house rent allowance though he may not have consciously shifted in the official quarter of his own. Therefore, petitioner's claim has been rejected.
(3.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner has also made submissions that by the office memorandum dated 12.10.2004 any decision to sanction house rent allowance were to be taken by the Functional Director and not the Area Chief General Manager/General Manager or HOD while in the instant case the house rent allowance was stopped by the General Manager of the Area. I have heard counsel for the parties and gone through the materials on record including the impugned order. From perusal of the materials on record and upon consideration of the statements advanced on behalf of the rival parties, it appears that from 2004 onwards the petitioner was posted in emergency cadre as a Safety Officer where his services were required in the vicinity of the mines where he was posted and that is the reason to allot him official quarter, though he was till then staying in a residential quarter and availed the house rent allowance. Under the prevalent rules, if the presence of the employees/officers of the organization is required in the exigency of work in the mines concerned, an employee cannot refuse to shift in the official quarter on the ground that he has a residential accommodation elsewhere at a distant place. If the petitioner did not avail the official accommodation of his own, he cannot claim the benefit of HRA by stating that he was residing in his own house, despite the nature of duties, he was required to perform as a Safety Officer in the mines where he was posted.;