om:42-cl-2025-Apr — Place of choice of LTC shall reckon on the fourth year and any advance drawn on erroneous calculation of the LTC year shall entail recovery of LTC advance drawn together with interest thereon

Place of choice of LTC shall reckon on the fourth year and any advance drawn on erroneous calculation of the LTC year shall entail recovery of LTC advance drawn together with interest thereon — This chunk discusses the eligibility of an employee, who joined government service in 2006, to claim Leave Travel Concession (LTC) for traveling anywhere in India. The employee was entitled to avail ... — Facts: Challenge is against communication, dated 30-3-2022 by which representation requesting waiver of LTC and Leave Salary Advance along with penal interest calculated from 25-5-2013 to 29-3-2022 to the tune of ₹ 1,91,396 was rejected. Challenge is also against the letter, dated 16-3-2018 by which the Respondent No. 4 informed the Respondent No. 3 that the clarification, dated 16-3-2018 issued by the DoP&T will not be applicable in case of the Applicant. The Applicant was appointed as Divisional Accountant in A.G. (A&E), Punjab on 15-2-2006. She joined Income Tax Department as Income Tax Inspector in the office of the Commissioner of Income Tax-9 at Mumbai on 5-11-2008. Thereafter, she was transferred at her own request to Nagpur on personal ground. Accordingly, she was relieved from Mumbai Office on 3-12-2010 and joined at Nagpur Office on 6-12-2010. The facility of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) was available to the Government servants in the following manner:

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(a) In a block of two calendar years, one LTC is available to Government servant to visit his home town. The block of two years was 2006-2007 or 2008-2009 and so on.

(b) In the block of 4 years, the Government servant can avail one LTC to anywhere in India in lieu of one Home Town LTC. The Block of 4 years was 2006-2009 or 2010-2013 and so on.

(c) Further for new recruits, as per the recommendations of 6th CPC DoP&T, issued O.M. No. 31011/4/2008-Estt(A), dated 23-9-2008 (filed herewith as Annexure A-4), by which Fresh Recruits to Central Government may be allowed to travel to their home town along with their families on three occasions in a block of four years and to any place in India on the fourth occasion. This facility shall be available to the Government officers only for first two blocks of four years applicable after joining the Government for the first time. The blocks of 4 years shall apply with reference to the initial date of joining the Government even though the employee changes the job within Government subsequently. The existing block will remain the same but the entitlements of the new recruit will be different in the first eight years of service. In the case of Applicant, the block of four years were from 2007-2010 and 2011-2014."

After joining the Government service, the Applicant has not availed LTC till 2012. In the year 2013, she availed LTC for the Block Year 2010-2013, for visiting Srinagar along with her family members. She submitted Earned Leave application from 8-4-2013 to 19-4-2013, dated 22-2-2013 and applied for LTC Advance of ₹ 1,09,008 which was 90% of anticipated expenses of ₹ 1,21,120.

In her LTC advance application, the Applicant clearly mentioned that she will be availing the LTC for the Block year 2010-2013. The block year in a case of newly recruited employees, specifically for the Applicant who joined the Government service on 15-2-2006 was 2007-2010 and 2011-2014. Immediately after completion of journey, the Applicant submitted LTC Bill on 26-4-2013 in which also block year 2013 was mentioned. The DoP&T in its Office Memorandum, dated 18-2-2016 enclosed a pro forma for self-certification and the guidelines. The department clarified that all the employees availing LTC has to give this certificate and the concerned office has to provide a copy of the guidelines for the information and action of the employees.

Serial No. 5 of the guidelines states that "a fresh recruit may at his option choose to avail LTC under the normal LTC rules as applicable to the other Government employees. In this case, he/she will not be allowed to avail other LTC as admissible to fresh recruit in that Block of four years. However, the Respondent No. 4 refused to extend the benefit of this clarification to the Applicant on the ground that it was issued on 18-2-2016 and hence, will have only prospective effect.

Vide Communication, dated 27-3-2018, it is informed to the Applicant that recovery of LTC Advance of ₹ 96,688 and Leave Encashment of ₹ 10,428 will be made from the salary of April, 2018. The recovery order has been issued after a period of five years from the date of availing LTC and hence, recovery is impermissible as per the Hon'ble Supreme Court judgment in State of Punjab and others v. Rafiq Masih (Whitewasher) reported in [ 2015 (2) SCC 151 ], dated 18-12-2014. The Applicant has filed representation, dated 8-9-2017, 20-12-2017 and 5-1-2018 pointing out that she availed LTC under the normal rules and not under the special rules applicable to newly fresh recruited employees. Therefore, the present OA has been submitted.

After the recommendations of 6th CPC, DoP&T's OM, dated 23-9-2008, fresh recruits to Central Government may be allowed to travel to their home town along with their families on three occasions in a block of four years and to any place in India on the fourth occasion and this facility shall be available to the Government officers only for first two blocks of four years applicable after joining the Government for the first time. This Block of 4 years shall apply with reference to the initial date of joining the Government even though the employee changes the job within Government subsequently, but the existing block will remain the same. The Applicant had joined Government service on 15-2-2006, therefore, as per the above rule, she was entitled to claim LTC for anywhere in India only in the 4th year and 8th calendar year after the date of completion of one year of regular service. Accordingly, the Applicant was entitled to avail Home Town Concession in the year 2013 but she availed LTC (Anywhere in India) for which she was not eligible; hence the application of the Applicant was rejected.

It is submitted by the Respondents that the Applicant was not eligible to avail LTC for the Block year 2010-2013, as she had joined the Central Government on 15-2-2006 and was fresh recruits to Central Government and her two block of 4 years will be 2007-2010 and 2011-2014. Therefore, she had to avail LTC in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and she had to avail LTC in 2014 i.e. fourth year as per DoP&T's OM, dated 23-9-2008. As per the CCS (LTC) Rules, she will become eligible for LTC with effect from 15-2-2007 (i.e. after the completion of 1 year of regular service). She was entitled for Home Town/All India LTC is as under:

Year of LTC Type of LTC LTC Occasion

15-2-2006 - 14-2-2007 Nil -

15-2-2007 - 31-12-2007 Home Town 1st

1-1-2008 - 31-12-2008 Home Town 2nd

1-1-2009 - 31-12-2009 Home Town 3rd

1-1-2010 - 31-12-2010 Any Place in India 4th

1-1-2011 - 31-12-2011 Home Town 5th

1-1-2012 - 31-12-2012 Home Town 6th

1-1-2013 - 31-12-2013 Home Town 7th

1-1-2014 - 31-12-2014 Any Place in India 8th

The above chart has been prepared on the basis of illustration given with DoP&T's FAQs, dated 26-9-2014 on LTC entitlement of a Fresh Recruit.

It is submitted that vide Letter, dated 29-1-2018, the O/o. Pr. Chief Controller of Accounts New Delhi, Internal Audit Wing, CBDT Mumbai, had made the audit observation wherein it was stated that the Applicant has quoted Para. No. 5 of DoP&T O.M. No. 31011/03 of 2015, Estt. (A.IV), dated 18-2-2016, which allows new recruits to opt for normal LTC like other Government servants. Further, it was clarified that the contention of the Applicant seems to be incorrect, since the DoP&T OM referred to by the Applicant was issued on 18-2-2016. The OM has not mentioned that whether it is effective retrospective or prospective. Generally, if effective date is not mentioned in OM, it is effective from the date of issue of OM. In this case, the said OM was issued on 18-2-2016, hence it is effective from 18-2-2016 and accordingly it will not be applicable in the case of Applicant as she had availed LTC in the year 2013 before issuing of this OM.

As per DoPT's FAQs on LTC entitlement of a Fresh Recruit, dated 26-9-2014 (Annexure R/1), the Question No. 3 and its reply is as under:

"Question 3. Are the LTC blocks of four years in respect of Fresh Recruits same as the regular blocks like 2010-2013, 2014-17℃ Answer: No. The first two blocks of four years of fresh recruits will be personal to them. On completion of eight years of LTC, they will be treated at par with other regular LTC beneficiaries as per the prescribed blocks like 2014-2017, 2018-2021 etc."

Hence, the Applicant's claim that she availed LTC under the normal rules is incorrect and does not hold merit.