HC directs Panjab University to clear pension arrears within 3 months

Indian Express

4 hours ago

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday directed Panjab University to release pending arrears to its pensioners within three months, failing which the university will have to pay interest at 18% per annum from January 16, 2018, the date of the impugned orders, until the revised pensions were implemented in September 2024.
Chief Justice Sheel Nagu was hearing a batch of petitions, including one by R.D. Anand, challenging the university's delay in paying arrears arising from the revision of pension for pre-2016 retirees, as per the 6th Pay Commission recommendations.
The pensioners had argued that although Panjab University began paying them the revised pensions prospectively from October 1, 2024, following a Punjab government notification dated October 23, 2019, arrears from 2018 to 2024 were still unpaid.
The university had earlier reduced pension payments for the employees who had retired before 2016 based on a now-withdrawn Punjab government notification dated August 13, 2015, which had triggered litigation and recovery proceedings in 2017 and 2018.
During Tuesday's hearing, the university conceded that arrears had not been paid and sought six months' time, citing the large number of beneficiaries — over 200 retirees, including 137 petitioners — and the need to secure funds from the Punjab government and Centre. However, the court only granted three months, cautioning that further delay would attract interest.
'For a pensioner, every rupee is precious,' Chief Justice Nagu observed, stressing that the university had already taken a year since the September 2024 order to compute arrears.
The university's counsel admitted that the pension revision exercise, ordered after the withdrawal of the earlier audit-backed order, had been completed. The only issue now, he said, was the calculation and disbursal of arrears.
The bench also clarified that the benefit of arrears would be extended to non-petitioner pensioners as well, and granted liberty to the university to approach the Punjab government for release of funds.
The impugned orders reducing pension — issued between 2016 and 2018 based on the now-revoked 2015 notification — were also set aside as a necessary consequence of the pension revision.
The court directed that compliance be monitored and any delay beyond the stipulated period would attract the penal interest rate. The matter is part of a long-standing battle by retired Panjab University faculty and staff for the correct implementation of pension revisions.
Advocate Abhijeet Singh Rawaley, representing a group of petitioners who had approached the court in 2018, said Tuesday's verdict brings to a close a long-drawn legal battle that began after the Punjab government issued a notification on August 13, 2015, reducing the pension of pre-2016 retirees. 'Though the Punjab government withdrew the notification in 2019, the university continued to pay reduced pension to pre-2016 retirees until October 2024. Now, with the court's order, they will have to pay the arrears as well,' he said.