Pay service benefits to wife of missing govt employee: Chhattisgarh HC

Raipur: Dependent wife of a missing govt employee can challenge his ex parte termination and claim service benefits of the employee who has been presumed dead after law-mandated absence of seven years, Chhattisgarh high court ruled earlier this week.

With this, the court dismissed a writ petition filed by Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), upholding an order mandating the company to provide all consequential service benefits to family of the missing employee.

A division bench comprising Justice Sanjay K Agrawal and Justice Radhakishan Agrawal directed BSP to expeditiously finalise the service benefits for the woman. The bench rejected SAIL's challenge against the order of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Bilaspur bench, which had set aside the employee's removal from service.

The employee, a senior technician at BSP's Rajhara mines, went missing on Jan 14, 2010. His wife had lodged an FIR regarding his disappearance. Despite receiving an official intimation about his missing status, BSP proceeded to issue a charge sheet against the absent employee on Dec 11, 2010, and subsequently removed him from service through an ex parte order dated Sept 17, 2011.

CAT allowed the woman's application, setting aside the removal order and directing BSP to grant all consequential benefits. SAIL/BSP challenged this order in HC, arguing that the woman lacked locus standi to file the plea without a civil court declaration presuming her husband's death.

The HC bench, however, held that since the employee had not been heard from for more than seven years, presumption of death under Section 108 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872, applied. The court noted that a civil court declaration under Specific Relief Act, 1963, was unnecessary when the fact of the seven-year absence was undisputed. HC said BSP committed a legal error by terminating the employee's service despite being aware of his missing status.
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