Employee Found Innocent In Departmental Proceedings Entitled To Interest On Delayed Payment Of Pension: Punjab & Haryana High Court

….. once the petitioner is found innocent of the allegations alleged and has suffered prejudice only due to the actions of the respondent-Department as the petitioner was prevented from availing his pensionary benefits upon his retirement for a sufficient long period of time and also petitioner could not use those financial benefits to his benefit, the petitioner becomes entitled for the grant of interest on the delayed payments to mitigate the prejudice/hardship suffered by him, which is in consonance of settled principle of law.

The bench comprising Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi further added that the respondents were well within their right to withhold certain pensionary benefits at the time of petitioner's retirement because there was criminal as well as departmental proceedings pending against him but after the proceedings there was no valid justification to retain the same.

It is a conceded position that when the petitioner retired from service on 30.09.2015, there were criminal as well as departmental proceedings pending against the petitioner and the respondents were well within their right to withhold certain pensionary benefits admissible to the petitioner after retirement but after those proceedings ended, there was no valid justification to retain the same especially when the petitioner was exonerated of the allegations before the Criminal Court as well as in the departmental proceedings.

In the present case, the petitioner retired from service in 2015 but the amount of gratuity and other benefits were retained by the respondents because there were criminal and departmental proceedings pending against him.

The court further noted that acts attributable respondents cannot cause prejudice to an employee whose pension was firstly withheld on the basis of pendency of the charge sheets and thereafter, he was denied the interest on the delayed payments, despite the fact that he was found innocent in all those allegations.

The acts which are attributable to the respondents cannot cause prejudice to an employee by firstly withholding his pensionary benefits on the basis of pendency of the charge sheets issued by the Department alleging certain allegations and thereafter, by denying him grant of interest on the delayed payments, despite the fact that the employee was found innocent as the Department concerned failed to prove those allegations.

Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of this case, the court held that once the petitioner is found innocent of the allegations alleged, he becomes entitled for the grant of interest on the delayed payments to mitigate the prejudice/hardship suffered by him.

Accordingly, the court allowed present writ petition.

Case Title: Ram Mehar Versus Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) and others

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