ITEM NO.104                 Court No.4               SECTION XVII

           S U P R E M E   C O U R T   O F   I N D I A                          RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS                     CIVIL APPEAL NO(s). 600 OF 2007

STATE OF JHARKHAND & ORS.                            Appellant (s)

                     VERSUS

UMA PRASAD                                           Respondent(s) (With appln(s) for vacation of ex-parte stay and office report ))

Date: 20/05/2009  This Appeal was called on for hearing today.

CORAM :         HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA         HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE B.S. CHAUHAN

(Vacation Bench)

For Appellant(s)                     Mr.Manish Kumar Saran,Adv.

For Respondent(s)                      Mr. Navin Prakash,Adv.

Mr. Mohit K. Shah,Adv.

          UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following                                O R D E R  

The appeal is dismissed in terms of the signed order.

            (Ganga Thakur)            ( Phoolan Wati Arora )             P.S. to Registrar                Court Master

Signed order is placed on the file.

                 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA                   CIVIL  APPELLATE JURISDICTION

            CIVIL APPEAL NO. 600 OF 2007    

  STATE OF JHARKHAND ...APPELLANT(S)

Versus

UMA PRASAD ..RESPONDENT (S)

O R D E R

This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated  13.12.2005,  

whereby  the Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court, dismissed the Letters  

Patent Appeal filed by the appellant.

 The writ petition was filed by the respondent claiming herself to be the widow of  

late  Birendra  Prasad  with  a  further   prayer  for  releasing  the  death-cum-retiral  

benefits  of  her  husband,  who  died  in  harness  on  8.10.2004,  while  working  as  

Assistant  in  the  Secretariat,  Dept.  of  Art.  Culture,  Sports  and  Youth  Affairs,  

Jharkhand.  The  writ  petition  was  disposed  of  by  the  learned  Single  Judge   on  

27.4.2005, directing for release of the death-cum-retiral benefit and also the salary, if  

any due, together with interest. The appellant aggrieved by the said order filed a  

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Letters  Patent  Appeal before  the  Division  Bench of  the  High Court,  which  was

dismissed  by  the  order  dated  30.12.2005,  as  against  which  this  appeal  is  filed.  

Learned counsel appearing for the appellant has submitted before us that there are  

certain claims of the department against the deceased arising out of appropriation by  

him of some amount  belonging to the Government.  

   However, on consideration of the records, we find that late Birendra Prasad, the  

deceased  was put under suspension on 26.9.1998 on the order of the Commissioner,  

Chhotanagar Division, Ranchi,  and by another order dated 16.6.2000, his suspension  

was  revoked.   Thereafter,  he  died  on  08.10.2004  in  harness  while  working  as  

Assistant  in  the  Secretariat,  Dept.  of  Art.  Culture,  Sports  and  Youth  Affairs,  

Jharkhand.   That  being  the  position  and  since  the  learned   counsel  for  the  

respondent is unable to show us any order passed by the competent authority issuing  

any charge-sheet against the said deceased, there could be no recovery of any amount  

from the retiral benefits of the deceased Birendra Prasad. There  

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is  no  record  to  show  that  any  departmental  proceeding  was  drawn  up  by  the  

department against the deceased before his death. We find no error in the judgments  

passed by the Division Bench and  by the learned Single Judge of the Jharkhand  

High Court. There is no merit in this appeal and the same  is dismissed.

We  are  informed that  during  the pendency of  the  present  appeal  the  

respondent was paid an amount of Rs.1,00,000/- (rupees one lakh)  which shall now

be adjusted against the dues payable to the respondent. All the service  benefits and  

other dues which are required to be paid to the respondent here   shall be paid within  

a period of two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order.

                              .....................J.                                                    ( MUKUNDAKAM SHARMA )             

   .....................J.       (Dr. B.S. CHAUHAN )

New Delhi, May 20,2009.