The Karnataka High Court has reinstated, symbolically, the former Director-General of the city-based Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), N. Murugesan, while declaring fixation of five-year tenure in the post for him as illegal, but allowed the incumbent DG to continue in the post as Mr. Murugesan is set to attain age of superannuation on May 31, 2019.
The court directed the Union government to pay him 50% of his salary plus proportionate dearness allowance with effect from March 21, 2015 (when he was relieved from the post of D-G) till May 31, 2019, by taking into consideration the pay revisions and increments, as applicable.
The court also said Mr. Murugesan would be entitled to the expansionary benefits under the new pension scheme as applicable to the post if he had continued in service to the extent of employer’s contribution. He shall also be entitled to gratuity and any other terminal benefits to be calculated on the basis of notional reckoning of his salary for the period from March 22, 2010 (date on which he was appointed as D-G, CPRI) till May 31, 2019, on which date he shall be deemed to retire from service.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad, passed the order on an appeal filed by Mr. Murugesan, who himself argued his plea, challenging the March 2018 order of a single judge, which had dismissed his petition.
The Bench said the March 2010 decision of the Prime Minister-headed Appoints Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) to appoint Mr. Murugesan for “an initial tenure of five years” was contrary to the CPRI (Pay, Recruitment and Promotions) Rules, 1989, which does not stipulate fixed tenure for appointment of D-G through direct recruitment mode.
The Search-Cum-Selection Committee (SCSC), the Bench noted, which comprised the Power Minister, had in November 2009 recommend Mr. Murugesan to be appointed to the post of D-G from the date of him assuming the charge up to May 31, 2019, the date of his retirement in superannuation, or until further orders whichever event occurred earlier. The officers concerned could not have put up the Cabinet Note by modifying the nature of appointment contrary to the CPRI Rules, the court observed. The ACC had not recorded any reason for differing with the SCSC, the Bench observed.
The Bench did not displace the incumbent DG, V.S. Nanda Kumar, while keeping in mind the fact that Mr. Murugesan has left within a short period of a month and bearing in mind that CPRI being a premier institution in the power sector involved in research, where a stable leadership is of vital importance, and since Mr. Nanda Kumar has been serving in the post for the past four years.