The Allahabad High Court reiterates primacy of statute over any executive instruction.

The Petitioner was appointed as a Lecturer/ Assistant Professor in St. John’s College, Agra, superannuated on 30.06.2024 from the post of Professor in Khwaja Moinudding Chishti Language University, Lucknow. She was denied gratuity benefits as per the government orders which provided that such gratuity would be payable only to those teachers who opted to retire at the age of 60 years and upon whom provisions of Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (“Act”) were made applicable but was denied to those who continued in service up to the age of 62 years, ostensibly for the reason that in such cases, 2 years additional service benefits were opted for.  The Allahabad High Court observed that Sec. 14 of the Act clearly states that the provisions of Act would continue to be in force irrespective of anything contained which is inconsistent with any other provisions by virtue of this provision the government order would become redundant since it is a settled law that provisions of statute would have primacy over any executive instruction such as a government order. The government order was valid prior to the inclusion of teachers as employees under the provisions of the Act, however when the amendment to the Act was effectuated in 2009, teachers were covered within the ambit of employees under the Act making the government order redundant. The court in this Writ – A No. 292/2025, ordered disbursal of gratuity along with interest.