Civil Writ petition No. 18531 of 2010 -1- IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ petition No. 18531 of 2010 Date of Decision : 6.5.2011 Vijay Kumar & others .......... Petitioners Versus State of Punjab & others ...... Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH Present : Mr. H.K. Arora, Advocate for the petitioners. Ms. Sudeepti Sharma, DAG, Punjab. Mr. Harit Sharma, Advocate for respondent No.4. **** AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J. (ORAL) Prayer in the present writ petition is that the petitioners, who have retired from Municipal Council, Batala on various dates have not been paid arrears on account of revision of pay scales w.e.f. 1.1.2006, as also the pensionary benefits, which they are entitled to and pension due to pay revision. Apart from this, the leave encashment and gratuity is also to be paid to the petitioners, as has been claimed by them on the basis of revised pay scales. Counsel for respondent No.4 Municipal Council, Batala states that the calculations with regard to the arrears of leave encashment and gratuity have been made and will be disbursed to Civil Writ petition No. 18531 of 2010 -2- the petitioners within a period of four weeks from today. Counsel for respondent No.4 further states that first installment of arrears of pension have been disbursed to all the petitioners except petitioner Nos. 12, 13 & 15, on the basis of revised pay scales. As regards the pension cases of petitioner Nos. 12, 13 & 15, he states that the same have been sent to the Regional Deputy Director, Department of Local Government, Amritsar (Respondent No.3) on 20.1.2011, which have till date not been finalized. This fact is disputed by counsel for respondent No.3. However, she states that if the assertion as has been made by counsel for respondent No.4 is correct, the needful shall be done within a period of one month from today and the first installment of the arrears off revised pension shall be disbursed to petitioners No. 12, 13 & 15 within a period of two weeks thereafter. Counsel for the State, on the basis of letter dated 29.9.2010, states that the arrears of pension / family pension / extra ordinary pension for the period of 1.1.2006 to 31.7.2009 accrued due to implementation of the recommendations of the 5th Punjab Pay Commission shall vest and become payable in cash in three equal installments. The first installment shall vest on 1.11.2010, second on 1.11.2011 and third on 1.11.2012, these vested installments shall be paid along with pension for the month of November, 2010, November, 2011 and November, 2012 respectively. Counsel for the respondent-State on the basis of letter dated 29.12.2010 submits that arrears of pay due to implementation of the recommendations off the 5th Pay Commission w.e.f. 1.1.2006 Civil Writ petition No. 18531 of 2010 -3- to 31.7.2009 shall be paid to the employees in three installments. 40% of the arrears of the revised pay shall be disbursed along with the salary for the month of May, 2011, 30% would be disbursed with the salary of May, 2012 and remaining 30% would be disbursed with the salary of May, 2013. In the light of these communications and policy decision taken by the State, which have been made applicable to the various Municipal Councils, the petitioners would be entitled to disbursement of the amount as per the above-stated schedule. Counsel for respondent No.4 states that the directions issued by the State would be complied with. Counsel for the petitioners accepts the statement made by counsel for the respondents and only prays that interest may be paid to the petitioners on the delayed payment on arrears as a consequence of pay revision from the date the notification was issued by the Government accepting the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission i.e. 27.5.2009. No exception can be drawn to the request made by the counsel for the petitioners as, no doubt, on the issuance of the notification revising the pay scales, the benefit would accrue to the employees on the said date and, therefore, for the delayed payments, they would be entitled to interest which is quantified at 6% per annum from the date of accrual i.e. 27.5.2009 till the date of disbursement. With these observations, the present writ petition stands disposed of. Civil Writ petition No. 18531 of 2010 -4- Copy of this order be given dasti under the signatures of the Court Secretary to the counsel for the parties for compliance. 6.5.2011 (AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH) 'sp' JUDGE