C.W.P No. 14119 of 2003 (O&M) ::1:: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.M No.13121 of 2010 and C.W.P No. 14119 of 2003 (O&M) Date of decision : October 12, 2010 Joginder Singh, dead, through L.R ...... Petitioner v. State of Punjab and others, ...... Respondents *** CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI *** Present : Mr. Gurnam Singh, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. S.S.Gill, DAG Punjab for the respondents. *** 1. Whether Reporters of Local Newspapers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? *** AJAY TEWARI, J (Oral) C.M No.13121 of 2010 Reply has not been filed. For the reasons recorded, C.M is allowed and the person mentioned in paragraph 6 of the application is impleaded as L.R of the deceased-petitioner, subject to all just exceptions. Registry is directed to carry out necessary correction in the memo. of parties. C.W.P No.14119 of 2003 C.W.P No. 14119 of 2003 (O&M) ::2:: This writ petition has been filed for quashing the order dated 29.7.2003 (Annexure P-5), whereby the prayer of the petitioner to grant him the benefit of Army service was declined on the ground that he was getting disability pension. The petitioner seeks counting of that service for the purpose of superannuation benefits and increments. Counsel for the petitioner has fairly stated that the claim regarding increments is not sustainable, and has only pressed for his claim of benefit of Army service towards civil service superannuation benefits. It is not disputed that the petitioner served the Army for approximately six years i.e from 30.10.1939 to 7.6.1945 and was discharged on account of an injury. For that injury, he was granted disability pension. It is trite to say that disability pension is not an ordinary pension and, therefore, the same cannot be counted for the purpose of grant of civil pension. In the written statement, the plea taken is not with regard to disability pension but is on the ground that as per Annexure R-1 (which was issued by the Army authorities), the petitioner was earning ordinary pension and it was on this score that denial to count military service for pensionary benefits in civil service was justified. Counsel for the petitioner has argued that the document, Annexure R-1, is obviously wrong because as per Army Regulation 132, 15 years service is required for the grant of ordinary pension. The said Regulation is reproduced herein below :- “ 132.Unless otherwise provided for, the minimum qualifying colour service for earning a service pension is 15 years.” The petitioner, as detailed above, did not have 15 years C.W.P No. 14119 of 2003 (O&M) ::3:: service and, therefore, was not entitled for the pension from the Army. In the circumstances, both the reasons taken by the respondents viz. the grant of disability pension and the ground that the petitioner was in receipt of ordinary pension cannot be held to be legally justifiable. Consequently, this writ petition is allowed, the impugned order is set aside and a direction is issued to the respondents to count the Army service of the petitioner towards civil service for computation of superannuation benefits and recalculate the pensionary benefits. Let the needful be done within a period of eight weeks from the receipt of a certified copy of this order and payment/s be made within a period of four weeks thereafter. In case the payment/s is not made within the aforesaid period of 12 weeks, the petitioner would be entitled to interest @ 8% p.a for every individual payment (on account of the increase) to be calculated from the date of its having fallen due. The interest, however, would be payable only w.e.f the date of filing of this writ petition since the petitioner waited for 28 long years to approach this Court. No costs. As the main petition has since been allowed, all the pending civil miscellaneous applications, if any, also stand disposed of. ( AJAY TEWARI ) October 12, 2010. JUDGE `kk'