IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civl Writ Petition No.1602 of 2011 Date of Decision : August 01, 2011. Manjit Singh .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.S.K.Arora, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.B.S.Chahal, DAG, Punjab. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers 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? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation, w.e.f. 30.9.2004. He applied for the release of his pension and the retiral dues including the commuted pension. The admitted fact is that the commuted pension was not released in favour of the petitioner as he was facing trial in a criminal case registered against him vide FIR No.50 dated 24.9.1995 under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, Section 29 of the Insecticide Act and Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner was acquitted in the said criminal case vide judgment dated 12.5.2007. He thereafter submitted a representation to the department that he was not CWP No.1602 of 2011 [2] interested in 'commutation of pension' and that his full pension be released. The petitioner's request was turned down vide the impugned order on the strength of Rule 11.17 of the Punjab Civil Services Rules (Vol.II) which reads as under:- “A commutation once applied for, sanctioned and given effect to, cannot be re-scinded, i.e., the portion of a pension commuted cannot be restored on refund of the capitalised value.” (emphasis applied) It is apparent from the bare perusal of the above-stated rule that the commutation of pension once applied for cannot be allowed to be rescinded provided that it has been sanctioned and given effect. In the case of the petitioner, the commutation of pension was admittedly not given effect. The respondents cannot take the benefit of the rule to deny full pension to the petitioner. The writ petition is accordingly allowed and the impugned order dated 14.12.2010 (Annexure P-2) is quashed and the respondents are directed not to commute the pension of the petitioner and release full pension to him allongwith arrears within a period of two months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Dasti. August 01, 2011 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE