Nahar Singh vs Haryana State

R.L. Anand, J.—Nahar Singh, the petitioner, has filed the present writ petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India and he has prayed for the issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari/mandamus against the respondents directing them to revise the pensionary benefits, including pension, commutation of pension, leave encashment, Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity, etc., on the basis of selection grade of Rs. 400-500 which was granted to him w.e.f. 1.4.1972 vide order dated 31.5.1995 passed by the office of respondent No. 2, keeping in view the law laid down by this Hon''ble Court in CWP 1179 of 1997 decided on 7.5.1997.

Some facts can be noticed in the following manner :-

The petitioner was appointed as Master in the State of Haryana on 25.6.1962. He retired from service on 31.1.1986. Earlier, the petitioner filed CWP 6101 of 1994 and claimed selection grade on the basis of the total strength of the cadre, i.e. permanent and temporary. This writ petition was allowed by the High Court on 26.5.1994. As per the police of the Slate Govt., 15% posts prior to 1.4.1979 were to be treated as selection grade posts and 20% of the posts after 1.4.1979 were to be treated as such. The petitioner was, admittedly, granted selection grade w.e.f. 1.4.1972 vide Annexure P-1. The grouse of the petitioner is that he is entitled to pension, commutation of pension, leave encashment benefit, etc. on the basis of the last pay drawn or deemed to have been drawn by him.

Notice of the writ petition was given to the respondents, who filed the written statement and denied the contents of the writ petition.

The case set up by the respondents is that the petitioner is not entitled to pensionary benefits, such as, commutation of pension, leave encashment, etc. because he had retired from service w.e.f. 31.1.1986.

I have heard the counsel for the parties and with their assistance have gone through the record of this case.

The facts in this case are not much in dispute. It is the common case of the parties that earlier the petitioner filed a writ petition in this Court and he was granted selection grade w.e.f. 1.4.1972. Meaning thereby, that the petitioner was getting the benefit of selection grade on the date of his retirement. Therefore, the benefit of pension, commutation of pension and leave encashment, etc. were supposed to be calculated on the basis of the deemed salary drawn by the petitioner. Of course, he is entitled to the arrears to the extent of 38 months prior to the date of his retirement. In this regard, support can be taken from a judgment of this Hon''ble Court reported in 1998(4) SCT 492 (Ram Chander v. State of Haryana), where similar point was considered and directions were given to the respondents to release the arrears due to the petitioner of 38 months prior to the date of his retirement and the contention of the Stale as contained in Rule 6.24 of the Punjab Civil Services Rules as applicable to the State of Haryana, was rejected.

Resultantly, the present writ petition is allowed and directions are given to the respondents to release the pensionary benefits, including, pension, commutation of pension, leave encashment, Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity, on the basis of the selection grade of Rs. 400-500 and on the basis of the last pay drawn or deemed to have been drawn by the petitioner, within four months from the receipt of a copy of this order. However, the arrears are restricted to 38 months prior to the date of retirement of the petitioner. No costs.

Petition allowed