88-Year-Old Emerges Victorious in Decades-Long Legal Struggle, Reclaims Father’s Rs 37,000 in Arrears

An 88-year-old man in Bengaluru has finally won a legal battle that has spanned decades to secure his late father’s arrears amounting to Rs 37,000. The High Court of Karnataka deemed him an unfortunate victim of bureaucratic red-tapism and directed the authorities to release the arrears dating from 1979 to 1990.

The Village Officer’s son, TS Rajan, had been fighting for his father’s right to compensation for years. The court noted that it was unfortunate that the Village Officer had passed away without receiving the compensation, and his son, now in his eighties, continued the fight. The State had argued that the petitioner’s father was not entitled to compensation because he was not sanctioned ad hoc compensation. However, the division bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice T G Shivashankare Gowda rejected this stand, calling it untenable.

Rajan’s father, TK Sheshadri Iyengar, worked as a ‘Patel’ in Thangali village, Kadur Taluk, Chikkamagaluru district. In 1997, an order passed by the high court allowed a compassionate allowance of Rs 100 per month for him and other beneficiaries from August 1979 to June 1990. After his father’s death, Rajan submitted a representation requesting payment, which was rejected in 2017.

Rajan then approached the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, which also rejected his application, leading him to seek relief from the High Court. The Tahsildar had rejected the request, stating that the petitioner’s father had not received ad hoc allowance. Rajan’s advocate argued that the State Government’s endorsement was legally unsustainable since it was the government’s responsibility to sanction and release the ad hoc allowance.

The High Court agreed with Rajan’s argument, stating that the reason recorded by the Tahsildar for denying the arrears was wholly untenable. The court ordered the State to calculate and pay the arrears, as well as the ad hoc allowance at the rate of Rs 100 between 1979 and 1990. Additionally, the allowance and arrears from 1990 to 1994 were to be paid at the rate of Rs 500 per month. The court also imposed a simple interest of 10 percent on the amount from the date of entitlement and ordered the payment to be made within three months.

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