MADURAI: Expressing shock and dismay at the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India for suppressing the facts, the Madras High Court rejected a plea filed by the company and imposed a cost of 2 lakh on it. LIC had sought to verify the community certificate of one of its retired employees who belongs to the Scheduled Tribal community.
T Karthikeyan joined LIC as an assistant in 1983 under the Scheduled Tribes quota based on a certificate issued in 1982 by the Tirunelveli Divisional Revenue Officer (RDO). He was later promoted and appointed Development Officer in 1985. Since there was some doubt raised as to the authenticity of his Community Certificate, the matter was referred to the RDO which, by its communication in 1990, confirmed the validity of the certificate.
Subsequently, another audit was considered in 1997 and notice was sent to Karthikeyan. He had asked HC to challenge the verification in 1997. The court ruled that once a certificate had been verified and found to be genuine, there could be no cross-verification and the employee could not be harassed through of a second investigation.
LIC having received certain complaints supported by certain documents, it requested another reference of the certificate. However, the same was shut down by the chairman of adi dravidar state level oversight committee and tribal welfare department in 2019. Challenging the shutdown, LIC had filed this petition.
Karthikeyan, who retired, filed a petition before the HC Madurai bench in 2023, seeking to prevent authorities from verifying his community and sought to release his pension and other monetary benefits. “The prior order made by this court on a motion filed in 1997 binds the parties. Therefore, the re-verification of the community certificate is in violation of the order made by this court. Given the above particular circumstances of the current case, we do not believe we should allow the second inquest to proceed,” observed a divisional bench consisting of Justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri. LIC had suppressed the fact that there had been an earlier audit in 1990. “We are appalled, shocked and surprised by this kind of suppression made by a leading financial institution in the country. We hope that such incidents will not happen again for petty court favors,” the judges observed. The judges denied the motion and ordered LIC to pay all monetary benefits to Karthikeyan within four weeks.
T Karthikeyan joined LIC as an assistant in 1983 under the Scheduled Tribes quota based on a certificate issued in 1982 by the Tirunelveli Divisional Revenue Officer (RDO). He was later promoted and appointed Development Officer in 1985. Since there was some doubt raised as to the authenticity of his Community Certificate, the matter was referred to the RDO which, by its communication in 1990, confirmed the validity of the certificate.
Subsequently, another audit was considered in 1997 and notice was sent to Karthikeyan. He had asked HC to challenge the verification in 1997. The court ruled that once a certificate had been verified and found to be genuine, there could be no cross-verification and the employee could not be harassed through of a second investigation.
LIC having received certain complaints supported by certain documents, it requested another reference of the certificate. However, the same was shut down by the chairman of adi dravidar state level oversight committee and tribal welfare department in 2019. Challenging the shutdown, LIC had filed this petition.
Karthikeyan, who retired, filed a petition before the HC Madurai bench in 2023, seeking to prevent authorities from verifying his community and sought to release his pension and other monetary benefits. “The prior order made by this court on a motion filed in 1997 binds the parties. Therefore, the re-verification of the community certificate is in violation of the order made by this court. Given the above particular circumstances of the current case, we do not believe we should allow the second inquest to proceed,” observed a divisional bench consisting of Justices R Subramanian and L Victoria Gowri. LIC had suppressed the fact that there had been an earlier audit in 1990. “We are appalled, shocked and surprised by this kind of suppression made by a leading financial institution in the country. We hope that such incidents will not happen again for petty court favors,” the judges observed. The judges denied the motion and ordered LIC to pay all monetary benefits to Karthikeyan within four weeks.