CWP No.13946 of 2005 1 IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. CWP No.13946 of 2005 Date of decision: 11.9.2008 Raj Kumar ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab & others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA Present: None for the petitioner. Ms. Charu Tuli, Senior DAG, Punjab. Rajan Gupta, J. The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition praying for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus to direct the respondents to release pay/pension due to him on his superannuation after attaining the age of 58 years from the post of Senior Assistant (Accounts) on 31.1.1999. The petitioner has contended that he had submitted various representations for release of his retiral dues. However, no action had been taken by the respondents. A detailed reply has been filed on behalf of respondents No.1 and 2 wherein it has been averred that service rendered by the petitioner in the respondent department was less than 10 years and thus he could not be granted the benefit of pension. It has been stated in the reply that the petitioner remained in military service from 21.1.1963 to CWP No.13946 of 2005 2 31.1.1991 and discharged therefrom on 1.2.1991 as Subedar with pension admissible to him. Thereafter, the petitioner joined the State Government on 3rd November, 1995 . He retired on 31st January, 1999. The case of the petitioner for pension was referred to the Accountant General, Punjab, who raised certain objections in view of Rule 4.6-A (V) of the C.S.R. Vol.II. The relevant part of the said Rules reads thus: “4.6-A: War service rendered by itself or in conjunction with other military service shall count in full towards civil pension subject to the condition namely:- xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx (V) Break between military/war service and the civil service shall be treated as automatically condoned; provided the period of the break does not exceed one year. Break exceeding one year but not exceeding three years may also be condoned in exceptional cases, under special order of the Government. The respondents have stated that in view of the above Rule, it was not possible to grant benefit of Army service for computing the benefit of pension to the petitioner. We have heard learned counsel for the respondents and carefully perused the record. It is evident from a plain reading of Rule 4.6-A that break between military service and civil service upto one year is automatically condoned. However, break of more than one year but less than three years may be condoned by the Government in exceptional cases by a CWP No.13946 of 2005 3 special order. However, in the case in hand, the break between military service and civil service is more than three years i.e. 04 years 09 months and 01 day. The same, therefore, cannot be condoned. It appears that case of the petitioner for condoning the break in military and civil service was also rejected by the Department of Defence Services Welfare vide letter No.5/5/99-2RDE4/3215 dated 21.4.2005 to which reference has been made in the reply. Thus, civil service of the petitioner being less than ten years, he is not entitled to pensionery benefits. The writ petition is, therefore, dismissed with no order as to costs. (RAJAN GUPTA) JUDGE (ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA) JUDGE September 11, 2008 'rajpal'