JUDGMENT

Jasgurpreet Singh Puri, J. (Oral)

The present is a petition which has been filed by a widow, who is stated to be bed-ridden and has been running from pillar to post to seek justice. It is a second round of litigation by a widow for seeking the family pension which is not only a Statutory Right but also a Constitutional Right under Article 300-A of the Constitution of India which provides that nobody shall be deprived of his property except by the authority of law. Right to property has also been held to be a Human Right by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

Factual Matrix:-

2. The facts of the present case are that the husband of the petitioner, namely, Sh. Gurmail Singh was working as Junior Scale Stenographer in the Office of Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab at SBS Nagar. During the course of his service, an FIR No.141 dated 02.06.2005, under Sections 307 , 326, 324, 323, 148 & 149 IPC was lodged against him. He faced the trial and was convicted on 19.03.2014 and was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for a period of 3 years. The aforesaid Office of the Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies conveyed the information with regard to the conviction to the Head Office vide letter dated 28.03.2014 which was received by the Office of Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab, Chandigarh on 31.03.2014. However, prior to the aforesaid date which was also the date on which he reached the age of superannuation, he had already applied for premature retirement on 17.12.2013, but without disclosing the pendency of the criminal proceedings against him. At the time when he applied for premature retirement, he was facing trial but there was no conviction order because conviction had taken place on 19.03.2014.

3. On the aforesaid date i.e. 31.03.2014, an order was passed by the competent authority vide Annexure R-2 (Colly.) by which he was retired and no condition of any sort was put on the retirement. Thereafter, on 04.05.2015, the husband of the petitioner submitted an application for grant of pensionary benefits but the Office of the Accountant General, Punjab objected to the same. He did not get any pension or pensionary benefits despite the fact that by way of an order passed by the competent authority he had retired from service without any condition. After about 4 months of his filing an application for premature retirement, he unfortunately passed away on 05.09.2015. After the death of the aforesaid Gurmail Singh, the rights of retrial benefits/pensionary benefits accrued to the petitioner being widow in the nature of family pension and the other benefits which were to be received in a lawful manner by the husband of the petitioner but neither any retrial benefits which had accrued to the husband of the petitioner were given nor the family pension was given to the petitioner being widow of the aforesaid Gurmail Singh.

4. Thereafter, the petitioner in the year 2016 filed a writ petition before this Court bearing CWP-6187-2016 seeking grant of family pension and all the retrial benefits which accrued to the husband of the petitioner and to which the petitioner is now entitled being his widow. The aforesaid writ petition was disposed of by this Court by passing a detailed order vide Annexure P-2 on 25.02.2019. This Court had considered the effect of Rule 2.2 of the PUNJAB CIVIL SERVICES RULES and even reproduced the same in its order and even a judgment of this Court in CWP-22174-2015 titled as " Darshan Singh v. State of Punjab and others", decided on