CWP No.17585 of 2008 -1- In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. Date of decision:10.02.2009. Shingara Singh ... Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others ... Respondents. CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr.Vijay Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. BS Chahal, DAG, Punjab, for the respondents. -- PERMOD KOHLI, J. (Oral): I have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length. While serving the Central Head Teacher, the petitioner retired on 31.12.2000 on attaining the age of superannuation. The pension of the petitioner was sanctioned at the time of his retirement and other retiral benefits were also paid to him. The petitioner went abroad and was not available for payment of pension. Accordingly, his pension was stopped on account of his non-availability. The petitioner has, accordingly, filed this writ petition seeking a direction to release the with-held pension and pay arrears along with interest at the rate of 18 per cent per annum. A short reply has been filed by the Treasury Officer, CWP No.17585 of 2008 -2- Ludhiana, admitting, the retirement of the petitioner and sanction of the pension. It is specifically stated that PPO was issued on 01.01.2001 for payment of pension in favour of the petitioner and the petitioner has already withdrawn the pension upto 31.03.2002. Thereafter, he went abroad and came back in January, 2008. The pension of the petition remained un-drawn for more than three yeas. It is further stated that the case of the petitioner is pending with the Accountant General, Punjab, for want of necessary sanction under Rule 10.13 (b) of the Civil Services Rules, Vol. II. The petitioner has placed on record internal correspondence between the Accountant General, Punjab, and the Government of Punjab as Annexures P-3 to P-5. From these documents it appears that the right of the petitioner to receive pension is not in dispute. Sanction of the pension at the time of retirement of the petitioner is also not in dispute. The pension has been with-held only on account of want of appropriate sanction from the government due to non-availability of the petitioner. There is no valid and cogent reasons to with-hold and deny the pension to the petitioner merely because he had gone abroad. The petitioner has already been found entitled to pension. In view of the above, present writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the respondents to release the with-held pension of the petitioner within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order by the competent authority, failing which the petitioner shall be entitled to interest at the rate of 6 per cent per CWP No.17585 of 2008 -3- annum on the amount so calculated. The petitioner shall be paid the pension regularly in accordance with the rules. 10.02.2009 (PERMOD KOHLI) BLS JUDGE Note: Whether to be referred to the Reporter? NO