CAT Closes Contempt Case By Six NCB Retirees, Leaves Retirement-Benefit Calculation Grievances Open

The petitioners brought contempt proceedings alleging wilful disobedience of the Tribunal’s order dated 11 November 2024.

That order directed the respondent to refund any amount wrongly recovered from the applicants’ retiral dues, pay retirement and service benefits, including gratuity and ex-gratia on gratuity, and comply within two months of receiving a certified copy; interest at GPF rates was payable for non-compliance within that period.

The petitioners alleged discriminatory treatment and disputed the calculation and payment of their benefits, including gratuity, ex-gratia, and leave encashment.

The respondent’s compliance material recorded nil balances due for the listed employees, and its counsel submitted that any challenge to the applicable rules or calculations would give rise to a separate cause of action.

The Tribunal’s operative directions in the underlying O.A. required payment of retirement and service benefits, including gratuity and ex-gratia on gratuity, and refund of any amount wrongly recovered from retiral dues without a show-cause notice; compliance was required within two months, failing which GPF-rate interest would accrue until payment.

The present order cites no statute or precedent. It treats disputes over benefit calculations or the applicability of relevant rules as grievances that may be pursued separately in accordance with law.

The Tribunal considered the prior directions and the respondent’s compliance affidavit and calculation sheet, alongside the petitioners’ objections concerning the amounts and rules applied.

Rather than determine the disputed calculations or rule applicability in the contempt proceeding, it left those matters open for the petitioners to pursue through an appropriate remedy. The order does not make a separate finding resolving the merits of those calculation disputes.

It preserved the petitioners’ liberty to agitate any surviving grievances concerning calculation of benefits or applicability of the relevant rules in accordance with law; no costs were awarded.