Civil Writ Petition No. 12218 of 2011 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 12218 of 2011 Date of decision : 30.09.2011 Raj Kumari ....Petitioner V/s State of Punjab and others ....Respondents BEFORE : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA Present: Mr. Vivek K. Thakur, Advocate for the petitioner. Ms. Monica Chhibber Sharma, DAG, Punjab. RAJAN GUPTA J. (ORAL) The petitioner has sought a writ in the nature of mandamus directing respondents to release retiral benefits such as death cum retirement gratuity, commutation pension, leave encashment and pension admissible to her deceased husband and family pension payable with effect from 13.07.2010 alongwith interest @ 18% per annum. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that husband of the petitioner who worked for 24 years in the respondent-department retired from service on 31.08.2009. He suffered from terminal illness due to which he died on 13.07.2010. He made number of requests during his life time to release his retiral and pensionary benefits as he was suffering from cancer and was in dire need of money but all his requests went unheeded. Hence Civil Writ Petition No. 12218 of 2011 2 the instant petition. Learned counsel for the petitioner has prayed that exemplary costs need to be imposed on State for delay in releasing the benefits admissible to the husband of petitioner. Learned State counsel submits that all the admissible retiral benefits/dues have been paid to the petitioner. She has referred to para 1 of the preliminary submission of the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State by Gurpal Singh Suman, Executive Engineer, Field Mechnical & Concrete, Production Division RSD Shahpurkandi Township in this regard. According to her, regular pension amounting to `3786/- has been sanctioned on 06.01.2011 for the period 01.09.2009 till the date of death of the husband of petitioner i.e. 13.07.2010. Family pension payable to the petitioner has also been sanctioned. According to her, delay in payment of retiral benefits has occurred due to procedural formalities in the department. Heard. Admittedly, all the retiral benefits have been released to the petitioner during the pendency of this petition. However, it cannot be lost sight that petitioner is a widow and husband of the petitioner was suffering from cancer. He retired from service on 31.08.2009 but had to wait for considerable period for release of retiral benefits. He ultimately died on 13.07.2010 due to terminal illness. His widow had to prefer the instant petition seeking a writ of mandamus to release the retiral benefits whereafter same have been released. In my considered view though no case for payment of interest is made out but costs need to be imposed for delay in releasing retiral benefits. Costs of `20,000/- are, thus, imposed on the State for delay in releasing the retiral benefits. The same be remitted to the petitioner within a period of six months. Disposed of. Civil Writ Petition No. 12218 of 2011 3 September 30, 2011 (RAJAN GUPTA) Ajay JUDGE