Pension Delay To Judge's Wife: Punjab And Haryana HC Imposes Cost On Itself

The delay in judicial proceedings is well-known, but when it affects the keepers, it comes as a surprise. In a recent case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court slammed a cost of Rs 25,000 on itself for the delay in a family pension case. According to a report by the Bar and Bench, the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sudhir Singh showed disappointment in delaying the disbursement of a family pension to the widow of a formal civil judge.  

The pension benefits are like the property of the deceased and cannot be denied until required by law. The court referred to Article 300A of the Indian Constitution.

The pension was denied to the judge and his widow in March 2018. The judge passed away in 2021. Since then his wife has been following up with authorities.

Reportedly, the court held, “Least that can be said about this case is that neither the judicial officer nor his family after his death was treated with dignity and grace. It is settled law that pensionary benefits as and when become due and admissible, if not released, are liable to be paid with interest and cost”.

How Did It Start?

It started in 1996 when the late Gurnam Singh Sewak, Civil Judge (Senior Division)-cum-Additional Chief Magistrate applied for voluntary retirement. However, his request was rejected because of a departmental inquiry pending against him. Instead, he was put under suspension until his superannuation in 1999. In 2001, he was dismissed from service.

In 2018, the High Court ordered in favour of him, and the chargesheet and inquiry report was quashed. However, it gave the liberty to take fresh action against him.

In 2019, an appeal was made before the Supreme Court against the judicial order, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.

Meanwhile, in 2021, Sewak passed away awaiting his pensioner benefits, which were not released to him due to the pending inquiry.

After Sewak’s death, his wife, Pritam Kaur approached the court in 2022 with an appeal to release the pension and arrears to her. However, the high court (on the administrative side) still sought recovery of Rs 1.87 lakh given to Sewak as subsistence allowance. In the absence of this recovery, it neither released the provisional pension nor the family pension.   

After two years of Sewak’s death, in 2023, the Vigilance Disciplinary Committee decided to drop the chargesheet against him. It also decided to treat his suspension as leaves due and the release of service benefits to his family. 

In 2024, the high court (on the administrative side) completed formalities and sanctioned the pension and gratuity to Sewak’s family.

Now, on March 7, 2025, the court took notice and questioned the decision of the high court on the administrative side to recover the subsistence allowance and delay pension release. The court observed that Sewak suffered from various ailments before passing away in 2021, and he had neither provisional nor regular pension support.

The court directed the State to pay arrears of the regular and family pension and interest on gratuity to Sewak’s wife. In addition to this, the court also imposed Rs 25,000 cost on the State and the high court (itself), for payment to Sewak’s wife.