Tripura HC tells NIT Agartala to pay ex-officer Rs 85 lakh in dues

The Tripura High Court has directed the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Agartala to pay more than Rs 85 lakh in pension, leave encashment and gratuity dues to a retired officer within three months, Tripura Times reported on Sunday.

The order was passed by Justice Biswajit Palit on a petition filed by Dr Sumanta Chakraborty, who joined NIT Agartala as Deputy Registrar in 2011 after about 15 years with the Tripura State Pollution Control Board.

Earlier service at the centre of the dispute

Chakraborty worked with the pollution control board from March 16, 1996, to August 11, 2011, and joined the institute the next day. According to court records cited in the report, NIT Agartala issued office memorandums in December 2012 and July 2013 that counted his earlier service for pension and leave benefits, relying on central government pension and leave rules.

Disputes later arose over how much he was owed on retirement. He first moved the High Court in 2017. A single-judge bench ruled in his favour in 2021, a division bench upheld that ruling in 2023, and the Supreme Court dismissed the institute's special leave petition in 2024.

The case came back to the High Court after Chakraborty said the institute still had not fully carried out the earlier orders and had worked out his dues incorrectly.

What the court said

Justice Palit noted that NIT Agartala had never withdrawn or challenged its own memorandums recognising Chakraborty's previous service, so those decisions had become final and were binding on it. Once an institution formally accepts an employee's earlier service, it cannot later deny the benefits that flow from it, the court held.

The bench also rejected the institute's argument that certain pension and gratuity calculations were missing, saying this did not fit with its own earlier decisions. It found that NIT Agartala had not shown that the previous directions had been fully complied with.

The institute must now release all admissible retirement benefits, after adjusting any amount already paid, within three months. Tripura Times did not report a response from NIT Agartala, and it is not yet known whether the institute will challenge the order.

The ruling ends, for now, a dispute that has run for nearly nine years through three levels of the judiciary. Pension and gratuity disputes involving staff who move between state bodies and central institutions are a recurring issue before the High Court in Agartala.