Judgment 1. Issues in this petition are actually very old. For more than 10 years, there has been an avoidance to resolve the issue. It is a typical mundane exercise which takes place within the babu kingdom to procrastinate routine administrative matters. But the babu who put the problem in his desk drawer, only left a cancer as a disease. In Bihars administration it has spread like an endemic disease, known as not paying employees their legitimate service dues including retirable benefits and pensions. 2. This is an administrative injustice being faced particularly by the ciass III and class IV staff, in this matter. All staff of the Patna Municipal Corporation. 3. Today, the situation has come to such a pass that those who have retired are not getting their pension. As if to tease the employees, one months pension was given for November, 2002. Not to give salary is bad but not to give pension to a retired employee becomes a matter of life and death. Such circumstances come to the High Court also. The occasion for the High Court to show concern arises only when there is a case before it. 4. Last year, the court had required the Registrar-General of this court by its order dated 9th May, 2002 to let this court know as to how many cases are pending concerning the employees of the Municipal Corporations and/or Municipalities of Bihar where the relief sought is on delayed pension. The Registrar General reported that there are two groups of cases and in one group about 225 cases are pending and in the other group about 15 cases. The report of the Registrar-General of May last year, perhaps is out of date and the court does not rule out the possibility that these cases may have increased. 5. Not to be ignored are cases where some employees have petitioned the High Court as employees of the State Companies/State Corporations where pensions have not been paid. Further, the State employees themselves, as yet another group, have filed cases with a complaint that pensions are not being paid. It is the impression of the court that in no other High Court of the nation, such a large number of cases are pending that retired employees are not being paid legitimate pensions and retirement benefits. Further, the State employees themselves, as yet another group, have filed cases with a complaint that pensions are not being paid. It is the impression of the court that in no other High Court of the nation, such a large number of cases are pending that retired employees are not being paid legitimate pensions and retirement benefits. This itself leads to a lot of presumptions, but at present this is not the tenor of the proceedings. 6. In the present case time and again, adjournments were sought by respondents that a scheme would be formulated so that the employees, of the Patna Municipal Corporation receive their post retirement benefits and pension regularly. No such scheme has been presented before the court. This file juggling between the Corporations/Municipalities and the State Government to and fro does not provide a ready answer to, a man, who has not received his dues after retirement. Such an employee is not interested on what has gone on in a dialogue between the Corporations/Municipalities and the State Government. He is only interested in the net result that upon retirement his dues along with pension must be a matter of certainty. His pension is neither a largesse nor a gift nor a bounty granted by the municipal body and is a vested right of the employee to receive as a right accruing out of service. 7. In Bihar, the Municipalities have been ruled by Administrators for more than two decades. The elected representatives have come only recently. No effort was made to place this matter before the elected Councillors when they took their seats. Though, with their recent arrival they are not responsible for this long pending problem. The court mentions this because a specific enquiry was made whether an agenda was generated to place this pressing matter before the elected representatives. The court is sad to know, though learned counsel for the Corporation has been frank in offering the answer that the Chief Executive Officer never referred the matter to the Councillors. The court is referring to this matter as an attempt was made that this matter would be placed before the Councillors now. Someone is running away from past responsibility. What would the Councillor do? Even these elected representatives are still fighting for powers and finances which they ought to receive as representatives of self government institutions. The court is referring to this matter as an attempt was made that this matter would be placed before the Councillors now. Someone is running away from past responsibility. What would the Councillor do? Even these elected representatives are still fighting for powers and finances which they ought to receive as representatives of self government institutions. These are subjects on their powers and finances as are mentioned in the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution. Thus, the court will not permit the exercise of passing the buck on to the elected representatives who only came recently. The State Administrators have ruled the municipality (institutions of self government-Article 243 P) and the court is afraid, the responsibility will have to be taken by the State Government. Administrators were the agents of the State Governments. This was a legacy of their times and will have to be resolved by their principal, the State Government. There is a price for supersession of self government institutions. This is one of them. 8. Certain sections of the Staff referred to in the Patna Municipal Corporation Act, 1955 apparently are assured of their salary unlike the staff of the Corporation. This is the staff which is mentioned in Chapter-IV of the Act. The Chief Executive Officer heads such staff. The pension, gratuity and leave allowances of this staff is a contribution of the Patna Municipal Corporation. What about the other staff? 9. The Corporation has no answer for the petty staff who are not receiving their arrears of salary, post retirement benefits and pensions. Between the State Government and the Patna Municipal Corporation they should have taken a reading on the wall when the Supreme Court directed the State Government to deposit a sum of Rupees fifty crores to take care of the post retirement benefits of the employees of the Government/Companies/Government Corporation. 10. The High Court had cautioned the State Government much earlier three years ago in its order of 20 July, 2000, and yet later of orders relating to other state controlled corporate bodies, that retirement benefits of such corporate employees cannot get embroiled in legal polemics. 11. This matter has been taken too lightly within the superseded Corporation which the Patna Municipal Corporation was. In legal fiction it was a corporation sole. It was headed by an Administrator along with the Chief Executive Officer assisting him. 11. This matter has been taken too lightly within the superseded Corporation which the Patna Municipal Corporation was. In legal fiction it was a corporation sole. It was headed by an Administrator along with the Chief Executive Officer assisting him. Thus, the State of Bihar is also not absolved with the issue, which is before the court. It is indicated to the court by counsel appearing on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer that six monthly, the pension liability is Rupees ninety lacs. This implies that it may be about Rupees One Crore Eighty lacs annually. A workout on details is a matter between the Patna Municipal Corporation and the State of Bihar. 12. As an interim measure, The court is left with no option but to give the following ad interim directions: (a) the Chief Executive Officer of the Patna Municipal Corporation hereinafter will not draw his salary unless, he presents a total workable scheme. (b) the Patna Municipal Corporation and the State of Bihar will jointly contribute to a post retirement benefit and pension fund, as a trust fund in the context of the matter. Rupees 2.5 crores will be deposited by the Patna Municipal Corporation and Rupees 2.5 crores will be deposited by the State of Bihar within one month from today. 13. Thereafter, between the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, they will present a scheme by identifying the employees, who are entitled to receive the post retirement benefits and pensions as on 31 March, 2003. This report will be submitted within six weeks from today. 14. Put up after six weeks.