Can’t refuse pensionary benefits once conviction of employee is stayed: Punjab and Haryana High Court
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 31
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a stayed conviction can’t be used to deny pension benefits. The ruling by Justice Pankaj Jain of the high court came in a case where a police officer’s conviction in a criminal case was stayed and he was allowed to retire with 100 per cent provisional pension. But his widow’s claim for family pension and other retirement benefits after the employee’s death was rejected.
Justice Jain’s Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that the employee working as an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Punjab Police was booked in an FIR registered in November 1995 after “a person died accidentally from a bullet released from his service revolver in a marriage party”.
A Hoshiarpur Additional Sessions Judge convicted the petitioner after trial for an offence punishable under Section 304-II of the IPC in August 2005. The sentence and conviction were subsequently suspended by the high court on his plea, following which he was reinstated in service by the police department in October 2009.
He was allowed to retire from the police service on attaining age of superannuation in May 2010 and was also awarded 100 per cent provisional pension.
His widow sought release of family pension after his death in May 2021, but her claim was desisted by the state and its functionaries on the ground that it would be decided after final adjudication of the criminal proceedings.
Justice Jain observed that the issue before the court was whether the retired employee’s kin could be denied family pension after his death, once the conviction stood stayed and he was allowed to retire after attaining the age of superannuation.
Justice Jain asserted: “The effect of the stay of conviction is that the same stands eclipsed and cannot be relied upon by the respondent to deny the claim of the petitioner, more so when admittedly the deceased employee was awarded his 100 per cent provisional pension.”
Allowing the plea, Justice Jain quashed the impugned order dated April 11, 2022, before directing the State to consider the petitioner’s claim for family pension within four weeks and grant the same, if admissible, with arrears and 9 per cent interest from accrual till actual realisation.
