IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWP No. 8606 of 2010 Date of Decision : 30.08.2011 Amar Singh Versus H.P.S.E.B. & Ors. Coram: The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Kurian Joseph, Chief Justice. The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Karol, Judge. For the petitioner : Mr. B. S. Ranjan, Advocate For the respondents : Ms. Anjula Khajuria, Advocate. Justice Kurian Joseph, C.J. (Oral) The writ petition is filed with the following prayers:- “1. That the respondents may be directed to release all illegally withheld pensionary benefits including arrear of unpaid monthly pension with effect from 01-06-2010, gratuity, leave encashment, commutation pension or any other pensionary benefit due, lying unpaid with the respondent forthwith. 2. Respondents may be directed to pay interest @12% on all the pensionary benefits due, but unlawfully withheld and not paid so far to the petitioner from the date of it has fell due till the day, the same is paid. 3. The respondents may be directed to pay interest @12% on the GPF payment amounting to Rs.3,12,135/-, unduly withheld from the date interest is not paid on the same till the payment is released on 21-08-2010.” 2. On 18th July, 2011, this Court passed the following order:- “The Executive Officer/Chief Accounts Officer/Competent Authority will file a short affidavit as to what are the steps taken or being taken for avoiding delay in disbursement of the eligible gratuity and other benefits for an employee, who has 2 superannuated from service, which date is ‘the certain most date’ in the service life of an employee. The Chief Accounts Officer/Competent Authority will also file an affidavit as to whether on the date of the superannuation, the employee can be given the cheque for the due and admissible amounts due to him since the pension papers are submitted six months in advance. This affidavit shall be filed by the Competent Authority within a month. Post for further orders on 30th August, 2011.” 3. The Chief Accounts Officer, H.P. State Electricity Board has filed an affidavit in response to the above order stating the steps taken to reduce the delay as under:- “A) That the HPSEBL has issued instructions from time to time to field Units to finalize pension cases of employees well in time. Copies of some of these instructions are placed on record as Annexure-RA-I to RA-III for kind perusal of this Hon’ble Court. The deponent herein has also issued strict instructions to all its field officers vide letter dated 11/8/11, a copy of which is annexed hereto as Annexure–RA-IV wherein it has been emphasized upon all the Heads of office(s) in the field units to ensure processing of all the pension cases well in time so that retiral benefits could be settled in time. B) That in order to curb delay arising particularly from vetting of pay Fixation and to ensure timely settlement of pension cases, the job of preliminary vetting of Pay Fixation has been assigned to the Accounting Units at Circle Level and at the Chief Engineer level with the direction to send S/Books of officials to F&A Wing in the Company’s Headquarter for final vetting, who are to retire in the next 3 years. The instructions in this regard stands issued vide letter dated 10/8/10, a copy of which is annexed hereto as Annexure–V. These instructions have minimized the process in finalization of the retiral dues of the individuals. 3 C) That the deponent also submits that implementation of Computer based ERP Project [Enterprise Resource Planning] has been started in the Organization which is under process. Personal data too would be digitized under this Project which would help in reducing delay in finalization of pension. On full implementation of the system of ERP, pensioners/employees data would be easily accessed/retrieved from different office(s) of the organization and the cases of delay in releasing pensionary benefits would be further reduced to minimal. The ERP project is expected to be fully implemented by October 2012.” 4. We appreciate the earnest steps taken by the Board. But it needs to be restated that the pension is not a bounty of the employer. It is the right of the pensioner. He is entitled to get pension from the date he becomes the pensioner. From the affidavit, we find that the steps are taken to settle the pension and pensionary benefits even three years prior to the retirement and in any case, an employee has to submit his pension papers before six months from his retirement. 5. Having regard to the difficulties as stated in the affidavit also, and having regard to the liability of the Board to pay interest in case of delay and in public interest, we find that pensioners should be paid their eligible pension and pensionary benefits in any case within three months of their retirement. It will be ideal in case the gratuity is disbursed to the pensioners on the date of their retirement unless there is any objection in that regard. We make it clear that in the event of delay beyond three months, pensioners shall be entitled to interest at the rate of 10% and the officer responsible for the delay will be personally liable for the same. 6. The Chief Accounts Officer should ensure that in case of delay in disbursement, the pensioners are paid interest and that interest will be 4 recovered from the officer responsible for the delay. The matter should also be reported by the Chief Accounts Officer to the Accountant General with particulars of service personnels who are responsible for the delay. In the case of the petitioner herein, we are informed that all the eligible benefits have been disbursed to him. Though the petitioner has made a vehement claim for interest in the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case particularly having regard to the service particulars of the petitioner, we do not think that it will be proper for us to enter into an adjudication on that aspect and, therefore, that question is left open to be perused either before the Board or to be adjudicated in appropriate forum. 7. With these observations, the writ petition stands disposed of , so also the pending application(s) if any. (Justice Kurian Joseph), Chief Justice. (Justice Sanjay Karol), Judge. August 30, 2011 (rana/c)