The Delhi High Court has thwarted an attempt of a retired official of Lok Sabha Secretariat to get back his job after seeking voluntary retirement and asked him to pay Rs 50,000 as cost to his employer for concealing facts.
A bench of justices Gita Mittal and Deepa Sharma upheld the decision of a single judge bench that had said that R Kothandaraman had "waived his right to withdraw the voluntary retirement".
The court also took serious objection of the concealment of material fact by Kothandaraman while attempting to take back his previous consent to voluntary retirement by alleging that his wife was refusing "to consent for a joint photograph for the pension papers".
However, later it came to the light that the joint photograph of Kothandaraman and his wife was already filed with the department in the pension papers.
"Given this conduct of the appellant in concealing material facts and generating this unwarranted and dishonest litigation as part a well thought plan, two years after the events, the appellant is burdened with heavy costs.
"For all these reasons, the present appeal is completely devoid of any merits and is hereby dismissed with costs throughout," the court said, asked him to pay Rs 50,000 within four weeks to his previous employer.
"We are deeply distressed that a person in such senior position in the legislative department, one who is engaged in law making, should display such scant regard towards established legal principles and create such litigation for already over burdened courts," it said.
On June 6, 2008, Kothandaraman had sought to voluntarily retire from the Lok Sabha Secretariat and after it was accepted, he sought to withdraw the voluntary retirement request, which was not accepted by the authorities.
Later, a plea was filed before a single judge bench which also dismissed the plea of Kothandaraman, who, besides working in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, had earlier served in Nagaland and Goa Legislative assemblies in various capacities.
