Summary of this article
The Rajasthan HC quashed RSRTC’s order to stop the pension of an 80-year-old retiree, convicted in a 2018 corruption case.
The court held that a pension is a statutory right.
It ruled that even after a criminal conviction, authorities cannot arbitrarily withhold a pension without due process, notice, or hearing.
The Rajasthan High Court has quashed an order by the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) which had withheld the pension of an 80-year-old former employee. The court ruled that even in cases which involved criminal convictions, the administrative authorities cannot bypass due procedure.
The case involved one Ramjilal Jangid, a retired office assistant who had served RSRTC until June 30, 2001. Although Jangid had been receiving his pensioner benefits for nearly two decades, the same was upended when he was convicted in a corruption case in 2018. The corruption charges resulted in a three-year prison sentence and a fine. Following this, on April 28, 2021, RSRTC issued an order to permanently stop his pension payments.
Jangid then raised issues against the Corporation’s action of arbitrarily stopping his pension. His counsel argued that RSRTC had denied the old man any opportunity for a hearing before imposing the penalty under regulation 4 of the Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation Employee Pension Regulations, 1989, according to a report in the Times Of India.
Noting that an earlier attempt in 2019 to withhold pension had also been challenged because it was issued by an incompetent authority, Justice Anand Sharma emphasised that pension is a statutory right.
In its order dated May 11, 2026, the single-judge Bench held that a pension cannot be withheld randomly without following due process. The court observed that while Regulation 4 grants authorities the discretion to withhold pension, fully or partially, and permanently or temporarily, this power must be used taking into account all the relevant factors.
Reportedly, the High Court criticised RSRTC for dealing with the matter inappropriately for ignoring the petitioner’s total length of service, and the dire consequences of the decision. The court noticed that the corporation only referred to the criminal conviction without weighing the possibility of a lesser penalty or a prior notice. Accordingly, the court deemed the corporation’s order unsustainable in law.
The High Court then directed RSRTC to immediately restore the pension and continue the payments to the petitioner. At the same time, the court gave the liberty to the corporation to reconsider the matter afresh following a strict legal protocol, starting with the issuance of a show cause notice and granting the petitioner an opportunity to be heard.
