High Court censures CONFED and assesses Rs 5L in expenses

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has fined CONFED Rs 5 lakh for behaving in an egregious way and violating the basic and constitutional rights of a widow who paid Rs 20–25 lakh for her husband’s medical care.

The recovery order was issued by the then-Managing Director (MD), who was chastised by Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri. Although CONFED was required to settle the sum upfront, it was given permission to get the money from the MD, who upheld the challenged decision. The censure resulted from a petition that attorney Dhiraj Chawla submitted.

The petitioner had twice petitioned the court for her late husband’s retirement benefits, Justice Puri noted. He saw that her spouse had received three chargesheets, two of which were issued while he was employed. However, because no orders were given, there was no progress. Since “there was an express bar on instituting disciplinary proceedings / chargesheet against the petitioner after retirement,” it was against the law.

When he passed away in 2017, Justice Puri noted that it was “very strange” that the fourth accusation—which concerned the loss of more than Rs 1.11 crore in wheat stock for 2011–2012—was made in 2020 for the first time.

“When the petitioner’s husband was alive, Rs. 1,11,85,976 was placed on a deceased man to be collected from his widow without any notification or order of ascertainment of obligation. When the money was ordered to be collected from the retiral benefits and the remaining amount from legal heirs, the respondents went beyond all bounds of illegality and perversity, according to Justice Puri.

Both the three chargesheets and the contested recovery order were revoked by him. Within two months, CONFED was ordered to pay all retirement payments, plus six percent yearly interest.