IMPORTANT POINT
Pension is a constitutional right and cannot be withheld without lawful authority; delays in payment warrant interest.

JUDGMENT :

JASGURPREET SINGH PURI, J.

1. The present petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking issuance of a writ in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents to release the retiral benefits i.e. Pension, arrears of pension, GPF, Gratuity, Commuted value of pension, leave encashment, full salary of suspension period from 16.05.2016 to 18.08.2017 arrears of full pay scale, Ist, 2nd and 3rd ACP Scale and other admissible retiral benefits alongwith interest.

2. The brief facts of the present case are that the petitioner was appointed as a Clerk in the office of the Municipal Council Thanesar respondent No. 5 on 04.12.1979. Thereafter, the petitioner being surplus in the office of respondent No. 5, was absorbed in the office of respondents No. 6 and 7 which are the government departments and he remained there from 20.02.2001 till 30.03.2007. Thereafter the petitioner was sent back to the office of respondent No. 5 and from the office of respondent No. 5 the petitioner had retired on attaining the age of superannuation on 31.03.2020.

3. While the petitioner was in service and was working in the office of respondent No. 5, he was suspended on 14.05.2016 but thereafter his order of suspension was revoked on 17.08.2017 and in the departmental proceedings only an order of warning was passed. However, after his retirement neither the retiral benefits nor the pension was paid to the petitioner. During the pendency of the present writ petition, some of the amounts have been released to the petitioner. The grievance of the petitioner is with regard to the release of his pension, remaining amount of the retiral benefits and interest on the delayed payments.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that it is a case when there was nothing adverse against the petitioner at any point of time except for the aforesaid warning which was issued in the year 2017 and thereafter the petitioner was retired on 31.03.2020 from the office of respondent No. 5. However, after the retirement neither his pension was fixed, nor his retiral benefits were paid to him, for the reasons best known to the respondents-department. He further submitted that the petitioner has suffered a lot because of the inaction on the part of the respondents and therefore, has prayed for issuance of directions to respondent No. 5 to pay the pension, arrears of pension and all the retiral benefits which have not been paid to him and also interest on the amount which has been paid during the pendency of the present petition.

5. On the other hand, Mr. Kapil Bansal, DAG, Haryana, submitted that so far as the period spent by the petitioner in the office of respondents No. 6 and 7 from the year 2001 to 2007, the petitioner has already been paid the benefits and therefore there should not be any grievance of the petitioner against respondents No. 6 and 7 but grievance if any, would be qua respondent No. 5.

6. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent No. 5 while referring to the reply filed by respondent No. 5 submitted that so far as the arrears of the 2nd and 3rd ACP to the tune of Rs.22,06,244/- is concerned, the same has already been released to the petitioner on 19.04.2023 and gratuity of an amount of Rs.9,52,976/- and leave encashment to the tune of Rs.5,63,710/- have been paid to the petitioner on 20.03.2023. However, with regard to the pension case of the petitioner is concerned, the same is still pending because the details of the contribution made by the petitioner is not available with the answering respondent and rather had written a letter to the State vide Annexure R4/1 on 19.09.2023 seeking the documents pertaining to the contribution share and pension record which have not been made available to respondent No. 5 till date and therefore, in the absence of any documents which were to be made available by the State i.e. respondents No. 6 and 7, the pension case of the petitioner could not be processed.

7. I have heard learned