Karnataka HC Rejects Retired Lecturer’s Bid for Remaining 50% Suspension Allowance; Pension-Fixation Challenge Fails Over Unchallenged Increment Cut

The petitioner, a retired English Lecturer at Gulbarga University, was suspended from 16 June 2017 to 4 July 2018, during which he received 50% of the subsistence allowance.

Following a departmental inquiry, Charge No. 2 was found proved.

The University Syndicate decided to reinstate him, transfer him to another institute, and withhold one increment; that decision was not challenged.

The petitioner later challenged the University’s pay-fixation order dated 24 September 2020 and its order dated 11 July 2022 refusing payment of the remaining 50% of the subsistence allowance.

He also sought consideration of a representation dated 16 August 2024.

The Court considered Rules 99(2), 99(5) and 118(a) of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules, which the University relied on in declining the request for the remaining subsistence allowance; the judgment records the University’s conclusion that those rules did not provide for the further payment sought.

The Court also applied the principle that a consequential pay-fixation order could not be challenged where the underlying decision to withhold an increment had attained finality and was not itself challenged.

No judicial precedent was cited.

The Court found that the Syndicate had determined, after considering the inquiry report, that Charge No. 2 was proved and had decided to withhold one increment.

As that decision was not challenged and had attained finality, the petitioner could not obtain relief by challenging the later, consequential pay-fixation order.

As to subsistence allowance, the petitioner had already received 50% for the suspension period, and the University had rejected the claim to the balance by reference to the applicable service rules.

The Court found no ground to interfere with that decision.

It clarified that dismissal would not prevent the University from proceeding in respect of Charge No. 3, if that matter had not already been concluded.