IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.8838 of 2010 Date of Decision : May 14, 2010. Sukhwinder Kaur .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Kulwinder Singh, Advocate, for the petitioner. -.- 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 is widow of late Rajinder Singh who was working as a Art and Craft Teacher in the Education Department, Government of Punjab and unfortunately passed away while in service on 13.9.1992. The petitioner's husband had taken a housing loan in the year 1988 and it appears that a sum of Rs.22,400/- was outstanding at the time of his death. Under the Government Policy, the balance loan amount was liable to be written-off but a decision to this effect was taken by the respondents only on 3.6.1998. Meanwhile, the Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity admissible to the petitioner was with-held. She had to undertake long correspondence within the authorities and finally the D.C.R.G is said C.W.P.No .8838 of 2010 2 to have been paid to the petitioner on 14.8.2009. The petitioner now seeks a direction to the respondents to pay interest to her on the delayed payments. In this regard, she is said to have served the respondents with a legal notice dated 1.1.2010 (Annexure P-1) to which no response has been received so far. Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner and if the facts, as noticed above, were to be correct, it appears that the petitioner is entitled to the interest @ prescribed under the Government Instructions w.e.f. 1.7.1998 till the date of actual payment of DCRG i.e. 14.8.2009. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with a direction to respondent No.2 to take cognizance of the above mentioned legal notice, verify the facts and dispose of the petitioner's claim in the light of the stand taken by her, by passing a speaking order preferably within a period of three months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Dasti. May 14, 2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE