C.W.P No. 16007 of 2006 ::1:: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P No. 16007 of 2006 Date of decision : May 12, 2009 Krishan Gopal Mahajan, ...... Petitioner (s) v. State of Haryana and others, ...... Respondent(s) *** CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI *** Present : Mr. R.N.Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Harish Rathee, Sr. DAG Haryana 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 By this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 13.9.2006 (Annexure P-6) whereby in response to his legal notice, his claim for counting his service in the Indian Navy towards pensionary benefits has been rejected. The admitted facts are that the petitioner joined the Indian Navy on 19.10.1969 and was discharged on 31.10.1979. He was appointed as Junior Engineer on 1.1.1980 with respondent No.1 from where he retired on 31.10.2005. He claimed that his former Naval service be counted C.W.P No. 16007 of 2006 ::2:: towards pensionary benefits. In this connection, rule 4.3 (a) of the Punjab Civil Service Rules Volume-II covers the situation. The same is quoted herein below :- “4.3 (a) Service rendered by an employee belonging to one of the classes mentioned in the Schedule below after attaining the age of 18 years, which is pensionable under military rules, but which terminates before a pension has been earned in respect of it, may, at the discretion of Government, be allowed to count, when followed by service qualifying for pension under civil rules, as part of such service. Service so allowed to count shall, however, be restricted to service, within or outside employee's unit or department, in India or elsewhere, which has been paid from Indian revenues or for which a pensionary contribution has been received by Indian revenues : Provided that any bonus or gratuity received in lieu of pension on, or since, discharge from military service, shall be refunded in such number of monthly installments, not normally exceeding 36 and beginning from such date, as in each case, the Government may decide. The amount shall be refunded along with interest calculated at the rate applicable on General Provident Fund accumulation from time to time computed in the same manner (i.e with annual compounding) for the period from the date of receipt of pensionary/gratuity benefits till the date of refund to the Government: C.W.P No. 16007 of 2006 ::3:: Provided further that in cases where after the issue of the orders by the competent authority on the basis of option exercised by an individual does not deposit the amount of bonus/gratuity already received by him from military authorities within one month of the receipt of communication from the Government/autonomous body, penal interest at the rate of 10% per annum shall also be charged in addition to normal rate of interest. The condition of payment of interest/penal interest shall also be applicable for military service benefit under the Punjab Government National Emergency (Concession) Rules, 1965.” In reply, the stand taken is that since the service of the petitioner in the Indian Navy was not pensionable, he would not be entitled for counting of the same towards his pensionary benefits. It may be noticed that the question regarding counting of previous Naval service is to be decided by the Government of India and not by the Government of Haryana. In fact, respondents No.1 to 3, by way of C.M.No.2097 of 2009, have placed on record a copy of the letter dated 23.4.2007 (Annexure R-1), whereby the Principal Director, Pay & Allowances, Ministry of Defence (Navy) has communicated to the respondents that they should send the proforma certificate for counting of Military Service on Appendix `A' to the Government of India, Ministry of Defence letter dated 19.1.1963 to the Bureau of Sailors, Mumbai through the present employer for verification and after verification the proforma certificate is to be submitted to the Controller of Defence Accounts (Navy), C.W.P No. 16007 of 2006 ::4:: IRLA Section, Mumbai. It is thereafter that the competent authority in the Government of India would take a decision whether or not the petitioner is entitled for counting of his former Naval service towards pensionary benefits for civil services. In any case, respondents No.1 to 3 are not the deciding authority for this purpose. Consequently, this writ petition is disposed of with a direction to respondents No.1 to 3 to forward the papers of the petitioner as mentioned in Annexure R-1 to the competent authority under respondent No.5, within four weeks from the receipt of a certified copy of this order. Respondent No.5 is directed to pass a speaking order on the question of permissibility of counting of the previous service of the petitioner towards pension within a period of eight weeks thereafter. ( AJAY TEWARI ) May 12, 2009. JUDGE `kk'