Kerala - Kochi   

Court dismisses claim for leave travel concession

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by the former president of the Kerala State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission T.M. Hassan Pillai seeking a direction to the government to grant him the LTC due to him since 2006.

The petition was dismissed by Justice Antony Dominic.

According to Mr. Hassan Pillai, he was appointed president of the Commission in November 2002. Under Rule 6 of the Kerala Consumer Protection Rules 1998, which prevailed at the time of his appointment, the president was entitled to salary, allowances and other perquisites on a par with a sitting judge of the High Court if appointed on whole-time basis.

In fact, he had been getting the LTC until 2005.

In a counter-affidavit, the government pointed out that at the time of appointment of the petitioner, the Kerala Consumer Protection Rules 1998 were in force.

But the government promulgated the Kerala Consumer Protection Rules 2005 in December 2005 in super-session of the 1998 rules.

These rules came into force in December 2005. Perquisites had been omitted when the new rules were promulgated.

The petitioner contended that since he was appointed prior to the promulgation of 2005 rules, his conditions of service were to be regulated in terms of the 1998 rules till his term was over. His term was now over.

The court observed that since the claim was raised in 2006 when the 2005 Rules were in force, “his entitlement will depend upon the terms of those rules. Since it is the accepted position that the 2005 rule does not provide for LTC for the president of the State Commission, the claim of the petitioner is unsustainable”.

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