BANGALORE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT CORPORATION Vs. DY. LABOUR COMMISSIONER AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Road Transport Corporation aggrieved by the order dated 5.2.2009-Annexure-A of the Controlling Authority under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, for short 'the Act', filed an appeal before the which when partly modified by order dated 16.6.2010, presented this petition. The main thrust of the case of the petitioner as aired by its learned Counsel is that the respondent-workman having resigned on 11.7.1997 by accepting Rs. 35,100.00 as gratuity, reckoning 13 years and 9 months as continuous service, filed an application on 1.6.2007, after a lapse of 11 years, under the Act to re- determine the gratuity by claiming Rs. 1,97,354.00 on the premise that he served the Corporation for a period of 20 years 4 months (6 years 7 months and 25 days and 13 years and 9 months). According to the learned Counsel, Corporation, though custodian of the records, was not required to maintain the records for over a period of 11 years, the authorities were not justified in reckoning 6 years 7 months and 25 days in addition to 13 years 9 months, as continuous service, despite the fact that the said period was treated as break in service. Learned Counsel hastens to add that after the decision of the Apex Court in Management of KSRTC, through Chief Law, Officer Vs. R. Krishna Reddy, 2006 (111) FLR 1194 (SC) and the opinion of the Division Bench of this Court in W.A. No. 1470/09 dated 9.3.2010, the gratuity re determined is Rs. 47,025.00 (Rs. 3,420.00 x 13 years 9 months) and deducting Rs. 35,100.00 since paid, the balance is Rs. 11,925.00 with interest at 6% p.a., from 1.6.2007.

(2.) Per contra Sri M.C. Basavaraj, learned Counsel for the respondent-workman, seeks to sustain the orders impugned as being well merited, fully justified and not calling for interference. Learned Counsel does not dispute the fact that the workman received Rs. 35,100.00 towards gratuity on his resignation from employment and that the application filed on 1.6.2007 before the Controlling Authority for re-determination of the gratuity was in view of the decision in R. Krishna Reddy's case, (supra).

(3.) The dispute is over the exclusion of the period of break in service of 6 years 7 months and 25 days due to leave, LWA, suspension, etc. from the total service rendered by the respondent-workman. While it is the contention of the workman that he did not suffer any orders, but attended duty everyday without any break in service, it is the assertion of the petitioner-Corporation that respondent-workman suffered the punishments, hence disentitled to reckon the period for calculating gratuity. The petitioner when called upon to produce records relating to break in service after a lapse of 11 years from the date of resignation tendered by the respondent-workman, Corporation did not have the records and hence unable to produce them.