Vinod Kumar Poddar receives a cheque of Rs 25,000 from a BSSC peon at IGIC in Patna on April 27. Telegraph picture

Patna High Court on Friday issued a directive to Bihar State Sugar Corporation (BSSC) to immediately release Rs 2 lakh to Vinod Poddar, a retired employee of the corporation, who is admitted to Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, Patna, with heart complications.

A bench of Justice S.N. Hussain issued the directive while hearing a petition filed by Poddar, through his advocate Aditya Narain Singh, seeking direction to BSSC to release his pending salaries and other arrears accruing to post-retirement benefits to him at the earliest.

The Telegraph had carried a series of reports on Poddar’s case following which the corporation issued two cheques of Rs 25,000 each.

The issues dated April 24 and 26, had reported the hardship being faced by Poddar owing to acute financial crisis. The Telegraph also reported in its April 28 and May 3 edition that Poddar received cheques for Rs 25,000 from BSSC as advance payments against his pending salaries amounting to Rs17.5 lakh.

Rs 50,000 is too meagre an amount for treatment of heart disease, the sugar corporation cannot shrug off its responsibility, the bench observed during the hearing.

“After hearing the submission, the court, which gave an out-of-turn hearing in the presence of advocates of the sugar corporation and other officials, ordered the corporation to release Rs 2 lakh immediately against pending salaries and other post-retirement benefits to Poddar,” said Singh, who fought Poddar’s case free of cost. The court posted the matter for hearing on May 7.

Poddar has been denied payment by BSSC in all previous attempts, as the corporation claimed that it has been facing financial resource crunch, Singh contended. He was citing the Supreme Court’s ruling that resource crunch is a very poor alibi to be made by any corporation or government body while refusing payment of salaries to its employees.

Lakshmeshawar Jha, cane commissioner-cum-managing director of BSSC, said: “Tho-ugh I am not aware of the high court judgment in Poddar’s case, as I am on my way back to Patna from chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Seva Yatra at Samastipur, we would put the order in front of the government to release the money.”

“The secretariat remains closed on Saturday and Sunday. Going by the word of the cane commissioner, it does not look like BSSC would initiate steps to release the money before Monday. But who would be held accountable if anything happens to my father in Delhi?” said Shubhika Shresth, Poddar’s daughter.

Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) would also release a sum of around Rs 1.5 lakh to Poddar against his outstanding payment during his deputation at the commission between May 12, 2010 and August 31, 2011. Shubhika said Poddar was apparently paid on a lower scale than what was promised by the commission. Justice S.N. Jha, chairman, BHRC, has earlier said a decision had been taken to release the outstanding amount.