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Can’t hold pension over fund crunch: HC

CHANDIGARH: Nearly 14 years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that financial difficulty was not a valid ground to withhold pensionary benefits, the state’s stand has not changed, apparently.

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Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 11

Nearly 14 years after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that financial difficulty was not a valid ground to withhold pensionary benefits, the state’s stand has not changed, apparently. It did not release the benefits to an employee immediately after her retirement in October 2011, on the invalid ground of monetary constraints.

Holding that the employee was entitled to annual interest of 9 per cent from October 2011, till it was eventually released in her favour, the Bench set two-month deadline for the state and other respondents to calculate the interest and another month to release the amount.

The direction by Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi came on a petition filed by Vinod Kumari Sharma against the state government and other respondents. The Bench was told that the petitioner retired on attaining the age of superannuation while working as an inspector with the Abohar Municipal Council. But the benefits she was entitled to were not released immediately.

It was delayed by the respondents without valid justification and was eventually paid to the petitioner in March, 2016, approximately five years after her retirement. As such, she was entitled to interest on delayed payment.

The respondents, in reply to the contentions raised in the petition, admitted the fact that all payments were not released immediately.Justice Sethi asserted the aspect of financial constraints was considered by the High Court Division Bench in the case of Ram Karan versus Managing Director, Pepsu Road Transport Corporation and another. It was held that financial difficulty was not a valid ground to withhold the pensionary benefits of an employee.

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