IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 4494 of 2011 Date of decision: 04.08.2011 Ram Narain ...Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH Present: Mr. J.S. Hooda, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Sunil Nehra, Sr. DAG, Haryana for the State. RANJIT SINGH J. The petitioner, who has joined the service as Gram Sachiv, was promoted to the post of BDPO. He ultimately superannuated on 30.11.2006. The petitioner was deprived of his pensionary benefits on the ground that FIR was registered against him on 01.05.2003. This FIR was registered on the basis of anonymous complaint. The petitioner terms this complaint to be malicious. The petitioner had been placed under suspension on the basis of this FIR. As per the petitioner, no disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him or the charge sheet was served on him. The petitioner was reinstated w.e.f. 06.01.2004. The petitioner, accordingly, requested for regularizing his suspension period in terms of Rule 7.3 of Civil Services Rules, Vol. 1 Part 1. Thereafter, the petitioner continued to serve and superannuated on completion of 58 years of age. His grievance is that his retiral benefits were Civil Writ Petition No. 4494 of 2011 -2- wrongly and illegally withheld without any justifiable reason, which have now been released on 27.08.2010. As per the reply, the benefits have now been released as the petitioner has been exonerated in the criminal charge on 25.02.2010. Pendency of the criminal charge is a reason withholding the retiral benefits of the petitioner. Since the benefits have been released, the only claim that is left is the grant of interest thereon. The petitioner, if so advised, may file a civil suit for claiming the interest on the delayed payment by justifying that the delay was unjustified. The writ petition is disposed of. August 04, 2011 (RANJIT SINGH) rts JUDGE