Retired Railway Employee To Get Rs 3.47 Lakh Gratuity Back As CAT Says Own-Request Inter-Railway Transfer Does Not Bar MACP

The applicant joined the South Central Railway in 1980, was promoted to Senior Clerk in 1987, and later transferred on her own request to the Southern Railway’s Thiruvananthapuram Division in 1992, reverting to the Junior Clerk grade.

She received ACP benefits and, from 1 December 2010, a third MACP upgradation at Grade Pay ₹4,600.

After her retirement on 30 June 2020, the respondents withdrew the third upgradation, asserted that the admissible Grade Pay was ₹4,200, and withheld ₹3,47,810 from her retirement gratuity.

The applicant challenged the withdrawal and recovery.

The respondents contended that her earlier promotions, including one before transfer and one in the Thiruvananthapuram Division, affected her eligibility under the ACP/MACP schemes.

The Tribunal applied the Railway Board’s consolidated MACPS guidelines dated 22 October 2019, which provide that, in cases of inter-Railway transfer involving reversion to a lower grade, service in the previous cadre is counted for MACPS eligibility and the transfer is not, by itself, a bar to MACPS benefits; those guidelines supersede the Railway Board’s letter dated 18 April 2016 to the extent of inconsistency.

It also followed the Tribunal’s decision in O.A. No. 180/00077/2017, which held that a prior promotion before an inter-Railway transfer should be disregarded for MACP purposes in the circumstances considered there.

For the limitation on arrears, it applied Union of India v. Tarsem Singh, (2008) 8 SCC 648, restricting arrears to three years before the filing of the O.A.

The respondents invoked Rule 15(4) of the Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993, and the parties referred to Rafiq Masih and Chandi Prasad Uniyal on recovery, but the Tribunal did not separately analyse those authorities in its final reasoning.

The Tribunal held that the 2019 consolidated guidelines governed the applicant’s case and displaced the inconsistent 2016 instruction relied upon to deny MACPS eligibility.

It agreed with the reasoning in O.A. No. 180/00077/2017 that service in the previous organisation was to be counted and that the earlier promotion, in the circumstances of the inter-Railway transfer and reversion, should not bar financial upgradation.

On that basis, it found no ground to deny the applicant’s third MACP benefit and set aside the communications withdrawing it.

The Tribunal consequently directed repayment of the amount withheld and refixation of pay and pension.

It directed the respondents to reimburse the ₹3,47,810 withheld from the applicant’s DCRG and to refix her pay and pension, with consequential arrears payable within three months of receiving the order; if payment was delayed, interest at 8% would apply.

Arrears were limited to the three years preceding the filing of the O.A.; no order as to costs was made.