Hon’ble Mr. Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad

Order on Board

11/03/2026

1. By way of this petition, the petitioner has prayed for following reliefs:-

“10.1 Call for the entire records from the possession of respondents, for kind perusal of this Hon'ble Court.

10.2 This Hon'ble Court be pleased to quash the impugned notice Annexure P-1 and the impugned letter Annexure P-2 by issuing a writ in the nature of certiorari.

10.3 This Hon'ble Court be pleased to direct the respondents to pay the pension, gratuity and other post retiral benefits to the petitioner along with adequate interest thereon.

10.4 This Hon'ble Court be pleased to pass such other orders as it may deem fit under the facts and circumstances of the case, in favour of the petitioner against the respondents including the cost of litigation.”

2. Brief facts of the case, is that, the petitioner belongs to the aboriginal tribe “Halba” community, which is recognized as a Scheduled Tribe under the Presidential Order, 1950 issued pursuant to Article 342 of the Constitution of India, and a caste certificate to this effect was issued on 20.03.1977 by the Office of the Collector, Raipur. The petitioner was born and brought up in the Halba community, her ancestors being residents of Pawani Tehsil, District Bhandara, which, as on 06.09.1950, fell within the State of Madhya Pradesh, and it is pertinent that Raipur, now in the State of Chhattisgarh, also formed part of Madhya Pradesh on the said date. The petitioner’s father was employed with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission and was posted at Raipur, and during his service tenure the petitioner completed her primary education from Nasik, Maharashtra. Thereafter, she obtained her B.A. degree in 1982 from Ravi Shankar University, Raipur, and subsequently secured employment with the Life Insurance Corporation of India as an Assistant on 10.11.1989 after successful completion of training, later completing her LL.B. in 1994 with due permission from her employer, and, owing to her sincere and diligent service, she was promoted to the post of Administrative Officer and posted at Mahasamund, while serving in the said capacity, the High-Level Caste Scrutiny Committee, Chhattisgarh, passed an erroneous and perverse order dated 23.08.2019 cancelling her caste certificate without following due procedure of law, which was challenged by the petitioner before this Hon’ble Court in WPC No. 4154 of 2019, wherein the operation of the said order was stayed vide order dated 20.11.2019 and the petition remains pending, with interim relief continued vide order dated 04.10.2021. Despite the subsistence of the stay order, the petitioner was served with a charge sheet- cum-show cause notice dated 31.12.2019 alleging that she had misled LIC and wrongfully obtained employment, proposing disciplinary action including dismissal and withholding of gratuity and pensionary benefits, to which the petitioner submitted a detailed reply dated 15.01.2020 pointing out the subsisting stay and requesting that no coercive action be taken, and also forwarded the same to respondent No. 3 vide letter dated 17.01.2020. Thereafter, the petitioner retired from service on 31.10.2022, however, to her utter shock, she received the impugned notice dated 02.11.2022 whereby her gratuity and leave encashment were withheld on the ground of pendency of the writ petition, prompting her to send emails dated 13.12.2022 and 20.12.2022 requesting release of pensionary benefits, and upon receiving no response, she filed an RTI application dated 11.01.2023, in response to which the impugned letter was issued informing her that her pension had also been withheld. Subsequently, the petitioner made representations dated 04.02.2023 and 16.03.2023 invoking Rules 46 and 47 of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (Employees) Pension Rules, 1995, seeking grant of provisional pension, but no relief was granted, and thus the impugned actions, being contrary to the applicab