The employees of the State government are entitled for payment of gratuity even for the period during which they were employed on daily wages before regularisation of their services, said the High Court of Karnataka.
The Payment of Gratuity (PG) Act, 1972, does not differentiate between a regular employee and a daily wage employee for payment of gratuity, the court said while directing the State government to pay within four weeks the remaining portion of the gratuity amount to a 75-year-old retired employee of a government school.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order on a petition filed by Basavegowda of Nagamangala taluk on Mandya district.
The petitioner was appointed as a Group ‘D’ post in Government High School, G. Malligere in Mandya during 1971 as daily wage basis. The government had regularised his service in 1990, and he had retired from service in 2013.
However, the government had paid gratuity of ₹1.92 lakh only for the period between 1990 and 2013, and declined to pay gratuity for 19 years, from 1971 to 1999, despite Controlling Authority under PG Act in 2015 directed payment of ₹2.44 lakh for the period in which he was on daily wage. He had moved the court early this year.
Meanwhile, the State government had claimed before the court that it had not paid gratuity to him as the issue of payment of gratuity to daily wage employees, whose services are regularised, is pending consideration for adjudication before the apex court in an identical case from the State of Chhattisgarh.
However, the High Court pointed out the apex court in many of its judgements had already held that the provisions of the PG Act overrides the laws on appointment and service conditions. The apex court in its 2019 judgement in the case of Senior Superintendent of Post Offices Vs Gursewak Singh had also held that Gramin Dak Sewaks appointed on part time basis were entitlement for payment of gratuity as per PG Act even though their services were not regularised.
Noticing that the retired employee has been denied a potion of the gratuity for nine years, the High Court directed the Government to pay ₹2.44 lakh with interest besides paying ₹50,000 as cost.
