Imphal, August 02: In a significant verdict, the Gauhati high court has asked the state respondents to deposit a GPF amount of Rs 15, 95,000 meant for seven lecturers of government run Lilong Haoreibi College.

This followed a writ petition filed by the lecturers led by K Ibetombi Devi after this huge amount was found to have been fraudulently withdrawn from the General Provident Fund account of the petitioners allegedly by Respondent No 6 principal of the same college, Md Majher Ali in collusion with some unknown persons, said case dossiers.

The same was detected sometime in 2005 and accordingly, the police registered a case against the frau-dulent withdrawal, the dossiers said adding the principal was also given the power and authority of DDO for the teaching and non-teaching staff of the college.

Because of such overdrawal and fraudulent withdrawal from the GPF account of the petitioners, a negative balance in respect of such account had come up.

In his Imphal bench sitting Justice Asok Potsangbam asked the State represented by higher education and finance commissioners to deposit the amount due to the petitioners with " accruable interest" in the respective GPF account within three months from the date of passing this order.

The respondent No 5 (Accountant General) Manipur, shall take all steps to ensure that the amount so deposited in the GPF account of the petitioners are released to the petitioners in accordance with rules, without any hindrance, said the order.

While passing this order the Court said the petitioners are entitled to withdraw and enjoy the amount deposited in their GPF account along with the permissible interest.

"Even if the amount has been withdrawn fraudulently by some culprits, there is still a legal obligation on the part of the Government to ensure that the depositors are not deprived of their savings made from their hard earned salary and if this is not done, the entire Government employees may loose faith and confidence in the Government�", the ordr said.

"After all , the Government respondents are the custodians of the GPF amounts deposited by the petitioners", it added.

Advocate N Kumarjit appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

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