03/04/2010
Order to revise house rent rule
Order to revise house rent rule
A husband and a wife who are government employees are both entitled to house rent allowance if one of them is posted a “reasonable distance” away from the other, Calcutta High Court has said.
The government now offers the allowance to either the husband or the wife if the distance between their workplaces is less than 250km.
But the court today ask- ed the government to redraw the house rent allowance policy using a “reasonable dis- tance” instead of 250km as the cut-off.
The matter came up during the hearing of a case moved by a Murshidabad teacher whose husband works for the railways in Calcutta.
Since Shukla Das’s hus-band stays 225km from her school in Kandi, she is not entitled to her house rent allowance, according to the rule that came into effect following a circular issued in October 2007. “She stays in a rented house at Purandarpur but she doesn’t get any rent allowance as her husband is already getting it,” said her lawyer Kaushik Chanda.
Das welcomed the order. “I had repeatedly told the authorities that I deserved the allowance but nothing happened. So, I moved court earlier this month.”
Opposing the petition, government lawyer Kamalesh Jha had said: “Fixing the house rent allowance for government employees is an administrative decision and the court should not interfere in the matter.”
However, Justice Biswanath Somadder said: “As the transport system and infrastructure in our country are not so developed that an employee can travel 450km a day to attend his/her place of work and return home, the government should fix a reasonable distance from home to the workplace if it wants to give house rent to only one of them.”
Before the 2007 circular, all state government employees were entitled to house rent allowance.
“When the government realised that working couples were drawing double house rent but sharing the same accommodation, it adopted the existing policy. But the 250km norm was impractical,” said Chanda.
Source: Telegrahpindia
Retired employees to get medical reimbursement: Delhi High Court
Retired employees to get medical reimbursement: Delhi High Court
Retired employees to get medical reimbursement: Court
Ruling that all government employees, even those retired, are entitled for medical reimbursement, the Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the Delhi government to pay the medical bills of a man who retired from a government enterprise in 2002.
Justice Kailash Gambhir asked the government to pay the medical expenses of Suraj Bhan and said: 'The state has a constitutional obligation to bear the medical expenses of government employees while in service and also after they are retired. Clearly in the present case by taking a very inhuman approach, these officials have denied the grant of medical reimbursement to the petitioner forcing him to approach this court.'
Bhan had approached court seeking reimbursement of his medical bills.
In 2003, following a circular issued by the government, Bhan got enrolled for the medical scheme and paid the premium on regular basis though he had retired a year earlier. In 2007, a new scheme was introduced, but he was not aware of it.
Bhan was suffering from asthma and was under treatment at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital from July 3 to July 9, 2004. When he moved an application for reimbursement of Rs.33,654 towards hospital bills it was rejected by the employment officer as Bhan was not part of the 2007 scheme.
'It is quite shocking that despite various directions from the courts, the government in utter defiance of the law has taken a position that the pensioner is not entitled to the grant of medical reimbursement since he did not opt to become a member of the said health scheme after his retirement,' the court said and imposed a law suit cost of Rs.10,000 on the government.
The government said that since Bhan had not opted for the new scheme in 2007, he was not entitled to reimbursement.
'The scheme is prospective in nature and the same would be effective once an employee becomes a member of the scheme and not otherwise,' counsel for the government said.
'It is a settled legal position that a government employee during his life time or after his retirement is entitled to get the benefit of medical facilities and no fetters can be placed on his rights on the pretext that he has not opted to become a member of the scheme or had paid the requisite subscription after having undergone the operation or any other medical treatment,' the court said.
Source: Indo Asian News Service
Subsidy for meals/food to running staff in the running room would be Rs. 27 per meal or 90% of the cost of the meal/food whichever is less
Subsidy for meals/food to running staff in the running room would be Rs. 27 per meal or 90% of the cost of the meal/food whichever is less
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