Pension is a right, not a reward: CAT

Srinagar, July 13: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Srinagar observed that pension is a constitutional right and not just a reward by the employer for a retired employee.

“Pension is not a bounty. It is a Constitutional Right of Property in terms of Article 300(a) of the Constitution of India. Law is beaten that pension is a Right to Livelihood enshrined under Article 21,” a bench of M S Latif, Member (J), said in response to a plea by one Davinder Singh, a retired employee of Irrigation and Flood Control Department.

The tribunal directed the authorities to treat Singh’s petition as his representation and consider the case by passing a reasoned and speaking order within four weeks.

In his plea before the tribunal, Singh submitted that he superannuated from his active service in January this year and subsequently approached the department with several representations for settlement of his pension case but no retiral benefits have been released to him so far.

“Pension is a social welfare measure and a post-retirement privilege to maintain the dignity of the employee and it is assistance for the post-retirement period and not just a reward that is paid by the employer,” the tribunal said. “The basic purpose for granting pension is to allow a retired employee to live with dignity in his old age and pensionary benefits should not be unreasonably denied to an employee.”

Disposing of Singh’s petition, the tribunal directed the authorities to treat the petition as his representation and consider the case on its merits by passing a reasoned and speaking order preferably within four weeks from the date he approaches the authorities.

“It is expected that the respondents will expeditiously decide the representation of the petitioner keeping in view that the petitioner is a retired employee who deserves a smile and a soft gloves attitude from the respondents,” the tribunal said.