Submission of Form I is not litigation.
You may submit the FormI to good office of your appointing authority and Controlling Authority of Gratuity which may be ALC in your case under proper acknowledgment from both, with a covering letter and mention that the reply be supplied to you by redg/speed post and for this purpose a self addressed postage prepaid envelope is enclosed. Let them reply to you by redg/speed post.
The judgment by HC and SC has already been attached. You have worked for more than 240days in the fifth year. The calculation is to be made from/preceding the date of reference, which you can also make.
The learned courts have also observed:
“The employee who had actually worked under the employer for not less than 240 days during a period of 12 months shall be deemed to have been in continuous service for a period of one year whether or not he has in fact been in such continuous service for a period of one year. It is enough that he has worked for 240 days in a period of 12 months.”
And this is already enshrined in the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972:
Section: 2A
Continuous service.
For the purposes of this Act, -
(2) where an employee (not being an employee employed in a seasonal establishment) is not in continuous service within the meaning of clause (1), for any period of one year or six months, he shall be deemed to be in continuous service under the employer -
(a) for the said period of one year, if the employee during the period of twelve calendar months preceding the date with reference to which calculation is to be made, has actually worked under the employer for not less than -
(i) one hundred and ninety days, in the case of an employee employed below the ground in a mine or in an establishment which works for less than six days in a week; and
(ii) two hundred and forty days, in any other case;
Nothing should be added to or deleted from an act. The judgments of the honorable courts have also reaffirmed the provisions of the act.
Employers tend to take advantage of ill informed employees and attempt to subdue the employees by giving misleading information verbally. Many of the employees get subdued and do not submit FormI in their life time and give up their rights.
If an employer has not taken compulsory insurance employer has to disburse the payment of gratuity from its own resources.
If employer is so confident let employer submit its private interpretation of the act in writing.
Employer can award better benefits to the employee but can not decline anything which is entitled by the Act to the employee.
Section: 7
Determination of the amount of gratuity.
(1) A person who is eligible for payment of gratuity under this Act or any person authorised, in writing, to act on his behalf shall send a writ application to the employer, within such time and in such form, as may be prescribed, for payment of such gratuity.
(2) As soon as gratuity becomes payable, the employer shall, whether an application referred to in sub-section (1) has been made or not, determine the amount of gratuity and give notice in writing to the person to whom the gratuity is payable and also to the controlling authority specifying the amount gratuity so determined.
(4)
(a) If there is any dispute as to the amount of gratuity payable to an employee under this Act or as to the admissibility of any claim of, or in relation to, an employee for payment of gratuity, or as to the person entitled to receive the gratuity, the employer shall deposit with the controlling authority such amount as he admits to be payable by him as gratuity.
There is nothing wrong in making an attempt.
Kindly post the developments in this thread.It shall help many of the fellow employees and countrymen.
