CWP No.13530 of 2007 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP NO.13530 OF 2007 DATE OF DECISION: 31-03-2008 Lalli Devi .....PETITIONER VERSUS Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and others .....RESPONDENTS CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL PRESENT: Mr.Raman B.Garg, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr.Narender Hooda, Advocate for the respondents. HEMANT GUPTA, J. The petitioner has invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court claiming a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to release the invalid pension from 05.06.1992 till 04.01.2007 i.e. the date of death of husband of the petitioner and thereafter to grant family pension to the petitioner w.e.f. 05.01.2007. Sh. Om Parkash, husband of the petitioner, met with an accident while working as Assistant Lineman with Haryana State Electricity Board now Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (hereinafter referred to as 'the Nigam') on 04.07.1991. He was declared 100% handicap with permanent CWP No.13530 of 2007 2 disability by the Civil Surgeon, Narnaul. He was retired w.e.f. 04.06.1992 on the basis of an order passed on 25.01.1993. The said order reads as under: “Sh.Om Parkash ALM s/o Sh.Rati Ram attached with the SSE 132 KV S/Stn, M/garh while performing his duty on Kanina Bhojawas telephone line met with non fatal accident on 4.7.91. He was got admitted in the Civil Hospital M/garh from where he was discharged on 18.7.91 at his own request from Medical Hospital Rohtak & then he remained under treatment of Dr.Arjun Singh RMP M/garh w.e.f. 18.7.91 to 5.8.91 and after that he remained admitted in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi w.e.f. 6.8.91 to 23.8.91 and was advised to get check up after six weeks by that Hospital and on his request dated 28.4.92 he was sent to CMO Narnaul vide this office memo No.Ch-19/PF-757 dated 27.5.92 from medical check up. It has been established by Civil Surgeon, Narnaul vide his memo No.15/1 ME Steno 92/69 dated 4.6.92 as per report that he is an old case of compression fracture D-9 vertebra with complete Paraplegia. He was also operated upon in Gange Ram Hospital, Delhi but no recovery. At present he is 100% handicapped and the disability is permanent. Thus, he is retired from Boards service w.e.f. 4.6.92 the date of issue of Medical Certificate on valid pension under rule 5.11 of CSR Vol-II read with CE 'OP' HSEB, Chandigarh letter No.138/Accident Cell/KKL-137 dated CWP No.13530 of 2007 3 5.1.1982.” (Emphasis supplied) The petitioner claims invalid pension in terms of Rule 5.11 of the Punjab Civil Service Rules as applicable to Haryana for the period, the deceased-husband of the petitioner was alive and family pension after his death for herself. In the written statement filed to the writ petition, it has been pointed out that the deceased husband of the petitioner has qualified service of 4 years 8 months and 29 days, which is less than 10 years of the service and thus the petitioner is not entitled to invalid pension. During the course of hearing, Mr.Hooda, learned counsel for the respondents has pointed out that in the service book there is an entry of payment of invalid pension but it could not be explained how the invalid pension was not released to the deceased-husband of the petitioner. The reason of non-payment of invalid pension can be easily found out from the order dated 25.01.1993 wherein on account of typing mistake the word “valid pension” was typed instead of “invalid pension”. The petitioner has been retired on the basis of medical ground and in terms of Rule 5.11 of Civil Service Rules, the deceased-husband of the petitioner was entitled to invalid pension under Rule 5.11, which reads as under: “5.11. An invalid pension is awarded, on his retirement from the public service, to a govt. employee who by bodily or mental infirmity is permanently incapacitated for the public service, or for the particular branch of it to which he belongs.” Such Rule does not contemplate any minimum period of qualifying service. The deceased-husband of the petitioner has received CWP No.13530 of 2007 4 injury during the course of employment and thus, it was rightly decided to grant invalid pension but it appears on account of typing mistake in the order dated 25.01.1993 such invalid pension has been withheld and not paid to the deceased-husband of the petitioner. In view of the said fact, the stand of the respondents in the written statement that pension was not given for the reason that deceased-husband of the petitioner has less than 10 years of qualifying service is not tenable. In view of the above, we allow the present writ petition and direct the respondents to release the invalid pension under Rule 5.11 of Civil Service Rules from 05.06.1992 till 04.01.2007 and release the family pension to the petitioner in terms of Family Pension Scheme, 1964. Needful be done within a period of 2 months from today. However, the question of counting of work charge service towards grant of pensionary benefits is left open to be decided at an appropriate stage as such question is said to be pending before Hon'ble the Supreme Court in separate proceedings. (HEMANT GUPTA) JUDGE ( MOHINDER PAL ) March 31, 2008 JUDGE jt