Chandigarh, June 5 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed a Punjab government undertaking to release the medical reimbursement amount of an employee, pending for nearly a decade despite sanction by the competent authority. The bills were kept on hold as the record submitted by the employee was misplaced by the corporation and he expressed his inability to produce certified copies of the bills from the doctor again, seven years after he had initially submitted and got approved. The high court bench of justice Deepinder Singh Nalwa directed for the release of the reimbursement amount, observing that if the respondents have misplaced the medical bills, there is no fault of the petitioner. In the case in hand, the petition was from one Rajesh Kaushik, an employee of PEPSU Road Transport Corporation, a government undertaking. His wife underwent a knee transplant at a Mohali hospital in June 2013, and he submitted medical bills for reimbursement of Rs.3.93 lakh. The case was considered by the competent authority and approved an amount of Rs.2.12 lakh. However, despite sanction by the competent authority in January 2014, it was not released to the petitioner according to lawyer Vikas Chatrath. In 2019, he got a letter from the corporation stating that the petitioner should submit photocopies of the medical bills, which the petitioner had submitted at the time of claiming medical reimbursement. He submitted duplicate copies of all the medical bills along with the necessary documents. However, in 2020, he received another communication stating that his medical bills file was not traceable and as such, the petitioner should submit medical bills again. In January 2021, he received another letter asking him to get the medical bills collected from the office and get them certified by the concerned doctor. He received a few more letters from the department. However, the petitioner expressed inability arguing that it was not possible at that stage to get the medical bills again certified from the doctor. In August 2021, he served a legal notice on the corporation seeking the release of the amount and thereafter approached the high court seeking its intervention. In the court, the corporation had argued that the medical bills had been misplaced. Hence, he was asked to resubmit the bills. As such the action of the respondents for not releasing the medical reimbursement is legal and valid, it was submitted. The court asserted that it is the duty of the employer to release the medical bills at the earliest. "It would be gross injustice at this stage, if the petitioner is asked to get the medical bills again certified from the concerned doctor/hospital. The amount of medical reimbursement, as sanctioned by the competent authority cannot be denied to the petitioner and the action of the respondents in not releasing the amount of medical reimbursement to the petitioner violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India," the court recorded asking the corporation to release the sanctioned and approved medical reimbursement to the petitioner within four weeks....