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22 yrs on, BMC staffer’s kin to get retirement dues
Legal heirs of Tukaram Dharpawar, who died in 2003, will receive his retirement dues nearly 22 years after he voluntarily retired from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), after the intervention of the Bombay High Court. Kanchan Chaudhari reports.
Legal heirs of Tukaram Dharpawar, who died in 2003, will receive his retirement dues nearly 22 years after he voluntarily retired from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), after the intervention of the Bombay High Court.
Dharpawar had joined the civic body as a labourer in November 1962, but he was placed under suspension in November 1977 following a criminal prosecution.
Dharpawar was prosecuted for allegedly demanding bribe from a hawker. He was convicted by trial court, said his counsel Prashant Karande. The high court however, reversed the verdict and acquitted him on March 16, 1984 on an appeal filed by him, added the counsel.After acquittal in the criminal trial, he was reinstated on June 7, 1984.
In February 1988, Dharpawar sought voluntary retirement, and accordingly BMC authorities allowed him to retire on June 1, 1988. However, a few months later, the civic body informed him that he could not voluntarily retire, because he had not completed 20 years in service, which would qualify him for a pension.
Instead, the BMC converted his plea for voluntary retirement to a resignation, by refusing to treat the period of suspension as service period. Dharpawar challenged the decision in the high court.
A division bench of Justice D. K. Deshmukh and Justice N. D. Deshpande said Dharpawar's service had not been terminated at any point of time. The bench noted he was merely placed under suspension, which implied he had continued in service.
The civic body had forwarded a letter to Dharpawar in May 1995, informing him that the period for which he was placed under suspension was treated as leave. "If that period is treated as leave, it obviously means that the petitioner was in the service," observed the judges.
The bench directed the civic body to pay all his retirement dues to his legal heirs.
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