HC slams 'sorry state of affairs' in withholding judicial officer’s pensionary benefits

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has slammed the denial of pensionary benefits to a judicial officer and his widow for years, calling it a "sorry state of affairs" and a "blatant disregard of law." The court asserted that the officer became entitled to superannuation pension or at least provisional pension from June 1999, along with other retirement benefits. But neither pension nor provisional pension was paid. The superannuation and family pension were sanctioned and paid as late as March 2024.

The observations came as the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sudhir Singh ruled that the denial of provisional/superannuation pension from March 2018 – when the dismissal order was quashed — till March 2024 was “without the authority of law”.

“The least that can be said about this case is that neither the judicial officer, nor his family — after his death — was treated with dignity and grace," the Bench asserted, while allowing Rs 25,000 costs of the petition filed against the State of Punjab and other respondents by Pritam Kaur through advocate Bikramjit Singh Patwalia, with counsel Abhishek Masih and Gaurav Jagota.

Taking up the petition by Kaur — the widow of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Gurnam Singh Sewak — the Bench observed that the judicial officer’s services were placed under suspension on August 17, 1996, “contemplating departmental inquiry”. He attained the age of superannuation on June 30, 1999. But provisional pension was neither sanctioned nor paid. He was later dismissed from service in February 2001 after his request for voluntary retirement was denied.

The dismissal order was eventually quashed by the high court, along with the chargesheet and the implicative inquiry report, on March 9, 2018. Even the special leave petition was dismissed on May 10, 2019. The Bench noted that the high court kept insisting on recovery of Rs 1,87,411 received by the judicial officer as subsistence allowance during suspension from August 17, 1996, till June 30, 1999. As such, “neither provisional pension was paid nor family pension was finalised and paid”.

"In the absence of any provisional or regular pension, the petitioner, who was suffering from different ailments, passed away on October 2, 2021," the Bench observed. In its detailed order, the court further questioned the authorities' silence over the prolonged delay in releasing family pension after the officer’s demise.

"Reply of the respondents is conspicuously silent as to why family pension was sanctioned and released as late as in January-February 2024, whereas the same became due immediately after the death of the petitioner's husband on October 2, 2021," the Bench noted.

The court also observed that the respondents’ reply was silent regarding reason for withholding even provisional pension “on and after March 9, 2018, when the penalty of dismissal from service was set aside”.

The Bench also took strong exception to the high court’s insistence on recovering the subsistence allowance. The reply was silent on the circumstances and the law under which the subsistence allowance could be recovered. “It is incomprehensible especially when the vigilance disciplinary committee decided to drop the disciplinary proceedings…,” the court observed.

The high court directed the State and other respondents to pay interest at 10 per cent per annum on arrears of regular pension and family pension, calculated from the respective due dates — July 1, 1999, for regular pension and October 3, 2021, for family pension — until full realisation. The petitioner was also directed to be paid arrears arising from revisions in pension, if not already disbursed.

The respondents were also directed to pay interest at 10 per cent per annum on delayed gratuity payments from March 9, 2018, until realisation, along with any arrears of gratuity due to pay revisions, if not already cleared. The court has further imposed exemplary costs of Rs 25,000 on the respondents, to be paid to the petitioner within 60 days.