AGARTALA, India, Feb. 16 -- Tripura High Court issued the following order/judgement on Jan. 15:

1] Common issue arises for consideration in all these Writ Appeals and so they are being disposed of by this common order.

2. We shall deal with the facts in Writ Appeal No.61/2022 for the sake of reference.

3. The respective respondents in these appeals are employees of the District Judiciary.

4. The respondent in the Writ Appeal No.61/2022 as well as the respondent in the other appeals sought payment of gratuity of Rs.20,00,000/- from the appellants. They placed reliance on a judgment rendered by another Learned Single Judge in WP(C)No.1054/2019 on 13.02.2020 (Sri Bhupati Debnath versus The State of Tripura and Others) where the petitioners were employed under the Tripura Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd.

5. The respondents are undoubtedly governed by the Tripura District Court Ministerial Establishment (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2014. Rule 11 of the said Rules states that in all matters like age of retirement, pension, death-cum-retirement gratuity etc., the members of the District Courts' Ministerial Establishment shall be governed by the Rules as are applicable to persons holding equivalent posts under the State Government.

6. The persons holding equivalent posts under the said Government are governed by the Tripura State Civil Services (Revised Pension)Rules, 2009 which in Rule 8 initially prescribed a death cum retirement gratuity of Rs.4,00,000/- on the superannuation /retirement w.e.f. 01.01.2009.

7. This was revised by the Tripura State Civil Services (Revised Pension) Rules, 2017 w.e.f. 01.04.2017 from Rs.4,00,000/- to Rs.10,00,000/-.

8. The claim of Rs.20,00,000/- being made by the respondents is based on Section 4(3) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 under which the Central Government had vide S.O.1420 (E) dt. 29.03.2018 enhanced the gratuity of employees covered by the said statute to Rs.20,00,000/-.

9. The Learned Advocate General contends that under Section 2(e) of the said statute, employees of State Government are exempted and the provisions of the said Act cannot apply to State Government employees.

10. The said provisions reads as under :

"[2(e) "employee" means any person (other than an apprentice) who is employed for wages, whether the terms of such employment are express or implied, in any kind of work, manual or otherwise, in or in connection with the work of a factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port, railway company, shop or other establishment to which this Act applies, but does not include any such person who holds a post under the Central Government or a State Government and is governed by any other Act or by any rules provision for payment of gratutity;]"

A reading of the above provisions indicates that in the definition of the term "employee" under the said Act, persons who hold posts under the Central Government or State Government and are governed by any other Act or by any rules providing for payment of gratuity, are not included.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=zDLovBVSUw02H8XukOjXfLroFDnJ02Bg1AD0Tu84UsZUujeeb7H9DkKiedep%2BjaH&caseno=WA/61/2022&cCode=1&cino=TRHC010006572022&state_code=20&appFlag=)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.