In an important ruling the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has said that pension and increments of a public servant can not be withheld only on the basis of a pending criminal case unless the person is convicted.
Giving a huge relief to Lakhi Ram, headmaster with Municipal Corporation of Delhi-run primary school, a two-member bench of the CAT headed by Justice Meera Chhibber said, “It is amply clear that only on the basis of the
case pending against the applicant (Lakhi Ram), the pension can not be withheld under Central Civil Services (CCS Pension) Rules, 1972.”
Similarly, the CAT also made it clear that gratuity can not be withheld under rules of CCS Pension Rules. Otherwise also as per the provision (of) Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, gratuity cannot be withheld.
The CAT passed the order after hearing the petition of Mr Ram, who had retired in August 2007.
He had been suspended on August 13, 2001 after his arrest in a criminal case relating to a property dispute.
Though Mr Ram was reinstated in May 2005, his annual increments were stopped from 2001 and were not restored even after his reinstatement in service.
Aggrieved by this, Mr Ram moved the Central Administrative Tribunal, which had granted him the much needed relief by directing the education department of the MCD to grant increments to him from the date of his reinstatement to his superannuation and to fix his pay as per the Sixth Pay Revision and determine his provisional pension.