CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has awarded Rs 5 lakh compensation to a 47-year-old man, holding that prolonged litigation had caused him irreparable injustice after his claim for a railway job became infructuous due to age.A two-judge bench of Justices Krishna Shripad Dixit and Chittaranjan Dash ruled that although the man was now over-age and could not be granted employment, he deserved monetary relief as he was not responsible for the delay in adjudication.“If a scrupulous litigant is prejudiced because of the long pendency of his litigation, the Court can do justice … and an argument to the contrary would result in right thinking people losing faith in the judicial process.
In matters like this, award of some monetary compensation would undo the injustice, by way of recompense,” the Bench observed on March 24, adding, “In our considered view, a sum of Rs Five Lakh only , if paid to the Petitioner, injustice done to him can be undone, at least to some extent.
”The case dates back to 2009 when the man’s father, an officer in East Coast Railway’s Sambalpur division, sought his appointment for a Group D post under the general manager’s discretionary quota.
The request was rejected in 2012 citing his higher qualifications (BA LL.B. and computer skills and a policy change removing such discretionary powers. The required qualification for Group D post was Class X.Subsequently, his plea before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Cuttack Bench was dismissed in 2017 on grounds of “efflux of time.” The high court on July 12, 2022 set aside that order and remitted the matter back to the Tribunal for fresh adjudication.
But on August 29, 2022, the CAT this time declined to interfere, endorsing the ECoR’s contention that he was over-age. The age of the man was then 43 years. In the same year he filed a fresh petition in the High Court challenging the Tribunal order.The Bench, invoking principles of equity, said courts must step in to remedy injustice caused by systemic delay. “After all, all standard Books on Jurisprudence including the one by Amartya Sen’s ‘The Idea of Justice’ broadly support this view,” the Judges added.Quashing the tribunal’s order, the court directed authorities to pay the compensation within eight weeks, failing which “would attract an additional levy of Rs 500 per day for the first 30 days and Rs 1,000 per day thereafter, recoverable personally from erring officials.”
