HC orders state Govt to compensate clerk

The Patna HC ordered the State Gov to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation to a head clerk whose services were unjustifiably terminated about 17 years ago.

The Patna High Court on Tuesday ordered the State Government to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation to a head clerk whose services were unjustifiably terminated about 17 years ago.

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Sachidanand Lal was posted as a head clerk in a government office at Muzaffarpur when he was removed from service on the insufficient ground of being absent from work for a day.

Lal challenged the Government order of September 1990 in the Patna High Court. In his petition he had complained that he was fired as head clerk on the petty charge of a day’s absence from duty, which pushed him and his family members to starvation leading to the death of his son.

After hearing the case, the single-judge Bench of Justice Barin Ghosh directed the State Government to pay the dismissed clerk wages from 1990 and other admissible dues within 15 days with 10 per cent interest. The amount works up to Rs 25 lakh.