Pension is a basic entitlement and its payment cannot be denied: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has emphasized that pension is a fundamental entitlement, and retired employees should not be denied this crucial source of livelihood. The court reprimanded the Maharashtra government for withholding the pension dues of an individual for over two years following his retirement. On November 21, a division bench comprising Justices G. S. Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain declared that the existing situation was entirely unacceptable and unconscionable.

HC was hearing a petition filed by one Jayram More, who used to work as a hamal (coolie) with the Savitribai Phule Pune University since 1983, seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to release his pension amount. The high court noted that More had rendered a meritorious and unblemished service but still on untenable and technical grounds for a period of two years from his retirement (May 2021), he was not paid pension.

More in his plea claimed that the pension was not being paid despite submission of all necessary documents by the University to the concerned department of the state government. From the beginning of the present proceedings, we were wondering as to whether any person who superannuates after a long unblemished service should at all suffer such a plight, after having rendered a long service of about 30 years and be deprived of basic entitlement of pension, being the very source of livelihood, the bench said.

From the beginning of the present proceedings, we were wondering as to whether any person who superannuates after a long unblemished service should at all suffer such a plight, after having rendered a long service of about 30 years and be deprived of basic entitlement of pension, being the very source of livelihood, the bench said.

The bench referred to a four-decade-old Supreme Court order and said the antiquated notion of pension being a bounty, a gratuitous payment depending upon the sweet will or grace of the employer and not claimable as a right, was held as wrong. In such a decision, the Supreme Court had authoritatively ruled that pension is a right and payment of it does not depend on the discretion of the government and would be governed by the rules, the high court said.