[1]In a major embarrassment to the cash strapped Kochi corporation, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Kochi corporation secretary and all the councillors not to draw their salary until the pension benefits of a retired corporation contingency staff was settled.
The court passed the order after the corporation officials ignored two earlier High Court directives in this regard. The court had asked the corporation to take appropriate action and granted it one more month for this. But the authorities ignored this again and failed to grant the pension benefits.
However, corporation officials maintained that the civic body was in deep financial crisis. Sources said that the corporation would be able to settle the dues only if the government sanctioned sufficient funds for this.
The corporation said that the court had passed the order on the complaint of a former employee but several similar cases were pending disposal. “We hope the government will support us in clearing the dues,” said sources at the corporation.
“Despite being granted more than a month, the authorities failed to settle the retirement benefits of a former employee. Therefore, unless the amount is paid to the petitioner, the court will be forced to restrain the officials from drawing their salary or any other emoluments until the petitioner’s dues are paid,” the judges ruled.
The court had posted the matter on Wednesday and when the case was taken up for hearing the court passed an interim order directing the corporation to disburse the money immediately.
The petitioner, K.K. Raghu, a contingent worker with the corporation, had retired on April 30, 2012 and his DA from 2000 to 2009 had not been granted.
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