SAROJ KUMARI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the present writ petition, the grievance which is being raised by the petitioners is that the release of retiral benefits of the petitioners were delayed beyond the reasonable time as fixed by the Full Bench of this Court in A.S. Randhawa vs. State of Punjab, 1997(3) S.C.T. 468, and the delay, according to the respondents was only due to the procedure to be followed for the release of the pensionary benefits, which ground is not a valid ground according to the settled principle of law, therefore, petitioners are entitled for the grant of interest on the delayed payments.

(2.) The facts, as mentioned in the writ petition are that petitioners No. 1 and 2 retired on 31/1/2017 whereas petitioner No.3 retired on 30/6/2015. At the time of retirement and thereafter, there were no proceedings ever initiated against the petitioners so as to entitle the respondents to withhold any of the pensionary benefits but the release of the pensionary benefits was delayed by the respondents and even at the time of filing of the writ petition, certain benefits in respect of the service rendered by the petitioners such as arrears of dearness allowances were yet to be released to the petitioners.

(3.) Upon notice of motion, the respondents have filed reply to the writ petition wherein, it has been stated that the Accountant General, Punjab had raised certain objections when the case of the petitioners was sent for the approval of the pension and other pensionary benefits and some time was taken by the department for clearing those objections and an unintentional delay due to the procedure has occurred in the release of the benefits to the petitioners. It has been submitted by the respondents that certain payments are still pending to be paid to the petitioners i.e. arrears of dearness allowance even at the time of filing of the written statement but other payments such as DCRG and leave encashment and GIS have already been released to the petitioners and the details of the same have been mentioned in the written statement. The relevant paragraph of the reply is as under:-