Railway authorities must reconstruct missing leave accounts under prescribed rules and cannot penalize employees for recordkeeping failures.

Late Shri Ram Singh Rawat was appointed as Assistant Station Master in the Northern Railway, Bikaner Division, on 02.10.1987.

Following the creation of the North Western Railway, the Bikaner Division was transferred to the North Western Railway, while the applicant subsequently served under the Delhi Division of the Northern Railway.

He superannuated as Station Superintendent on 31.07.2019.

His leave records for the period 02.10.1987 to 31.12.1999 were not transferred or made available to the Delhi Division.

Despite representations dated 08.04.2016, 15.09.2017 and 05.02.2018, the respondents recast the leave account and decided that no credit would be granted for the unavailable period, principally relying upon an alleged record of 249 days of Leave Without Pay.

During the proceedings, Shri Rawat died and his wife, Mamta Devi, was substituted as the legal representative.

The applicant challenged the recasting and sought recalculation of the leave account, including the claimed 180 days of Leave on Average Pay and 80 days of Half Average Pay, together with consequential leave encashment and interest.

1. Whether the respondents were entitled to deny leave credit for the period 02.10.1987 to 31.12.1999 merely because the relevant leave records were unavailable and an alleged period of Leave Without Pay was recorded.

2. Whether the respondents were required to reconstruct and recast the missing leave account in accordance with Railway Board Circular RBE No. 5/93 dated 13.01.1993 and the applicable leave rules.

3. Whether the applicant was entitled to consequential release of any additional leave encashment found payable after lawful recalculation.

The Tribunal applied Railway Board Circular RBE No. 5/93 dated 13.01.1993, which requires missing or partially missing leave accounts to be reconstructed using available leave-account charts, pay-bill ledgers, service-register entries, leave orders, muster rolls, absentee statements and the employee’s statement; any available brought-forward balance must be treated as authentic and the account recalculated accordingly.

The Circular further provides that the quantum of leave taken may be assessed, where necessary, by reference to the average leave taken during the five years for which records are available, subject to the applicable maximum accumulation limits.

Rules 1019–1021 of the relevant Railway leave rules were also recognised as applicable.

Relying on Union of India & Ors. v. J.R. Dhiman, W.P. (C) No. 7992/2012, decided by the Delhi High Court on 14.05.2013, the Tribunal reiterated that the Railway administration, as custodian of service records, cannot take advantage of its own failure to maintain or transfer those records, nor can an employee be penalised through an irrational method of recasting.

The Tribunal found that the respondents had dealt with the unavailable leave records by simply denying credit for the relevant period, rather than reconstructing the account through the evidentiary methods prescribed in RBE Circular No. 5/93.

Since the administration was responsible for maintaining and transferring the service and leave records, the absence of those records could not, consistently with J.R. Dhiman, be used to prejudice the employee’s entitlement to leave encashment.

The respondents were therefore required to undertake a rule-based recalculation of the leave account for 02.10.1987 to 31.12.1999, taking into account the available records, applicable leave credits, leave availed, periods not qualifying for leave, and the prescribed accumulation limits.

The Tribunal did not itself declare that the claimed 180 days of LAP and 80 days of HAP were conclusively payable; instead, it directed a lawful recalculation to determine whether any additional leave encashment was admissible.

If the recalculation disclosed any further leave encashment entitlement, the respondents were directed to release the balance amount to Mamta Devi within three weeks of receiving a certified copy of the order.

The pending miscellaneous application, if any, was also disposed of, with no order as to costs.