Devinder Kaur vs State of Punjab and others

The petitioner, who was working as a Principal in Government

Senior Secondary School, Sandhara, District Hoshiarpur, served a three

months'' notice on 28.11.2011, as per Rule 3 (1) of the Punjab Civil Service

(Premature Retirement) Rules, 1975, seeking premature retirement. The

said notice of three months'' expired on 29.2.2012. The petitioner stood

relieved. It comes out that ultimately the sanction for grant of premature

retirement was granted on 31.5.2012 by the competent authority. The

pensionary benefits were released as under :-

"Sr. No. Description Amount Date of Payment

Death cum gratuity 679833/- 5.1.2013

Leave encashment 271933/- 5.1.2013

Group insurance scheme 24408/- 5.1.2013

General Provident Fund (This includes the interest upto July, 2012) 2216047/- 5.1.2013

Commutation of pension 623487/- 15.1.2013

Pension + Arrears 263204/- 15.1.2013"

Now, the claim of the petitioner is for interest on the delayed

payments of pensionary benefits.

In the reply, respondents have stated that the petitioner had not

completed the necessary formalities/documents upto 28.11.2011. She did

not submit necessary documents like option for pay fixation, pension papers

etc., which were submitted on 23.8.2012. Thereafter, the pension case of

the petitioner was forwarded to the office of Accountant General, Punjab,

Chandigarh on 19.10.2012, which was sanctioned on 21.11.2012. Hence,

the payments were made in January, 2013. It was also claimed in the

written statement that the petitioner herself was the Drawing and

Disbursing Officer and the delay was because of her inaction.

I have heard the learned counsels for the parties and have also

carefully gone through the file.

So far as the DCRG, leave encashment, Group Insurance and

General Provident Fund are concerned, no paper formalities were required

to be done. There is no ground to release the said payments after little more

than ten months. In case of GPF, the interest has been paid upto July, 2012

and the same is required to be paid upto the date of payment. Now, only

two heads are left i.e. commutation of pension plus arrears, which were

released on 15.1.2013. When the petitioner stood retired on 28.11.2011, it

was the duty of the department to issue option form to the petitioner and

also get the pension papers filled in. For that purpose, three months'' time is

given to the employer, as per the instructions of the Government.

Therefore, the said papers must have been completed till 31.5.2012. In

these circumstances, interest at the rate of 9% per annum from 31.5.2012 till

the date of payment on all the retiral benefits is allowed minus the interest

already paid on the GPF.

The present writ petition is allowed to the abovenoted extent.