It says that the pension cannot be denied simply due to delay in the application or resignation
Police officers walk past Pakistan’s Supreme Court building, in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 6, 2022. REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has ruled that pension is neither a grant nor a charity, but a constitutional and legal right of a government employee, which cannot be denied simply on the grounds of late application or resignation.
According to the detailed court-approved judgment issued to inform, a three-member bench comprising Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb set aside the decision of the Federal Service Court dated July 3, 2024 in the case of Muhammad Usman v. Federation of Pakistan.
The court noted that Muhammad Usman had completed more than 20 years of service as a Senior Auditor (BS-11) in the office of Military Accountant General, Rawalpindi, fulfilling the legal requirement for pension.
He further noted that after the 2001 amendment to the Civil Servants Act, the service entitling to receive pension was reduced from 25 to 20 years, a condition already fulfilled by the petitioner.
The Supreme Court rejected the argument that the petitioner was not entitled to pension due to a delay of 13 years in submitting his application.
The ruling indicates that the right to pension accrues immediately after retirement or acceptance of the resignation and cannot be extinguished by mere delay. He added that neither the laches doctrine nor the statute of limitations apply to pension rights.
The court also criticized the misinterpretation of Regulation CSR 418, clarifying that the regulation relates to the count of service and not to the total loss of pension.
He held that resignation, by itself, does not deprive an employee of his pension, especially when he has already completed the required length of service.
Declaring that the decisions of the court and the department were based on a misinterpretation of the law, the SC converted the petition into an appeal and accepted it, directing the authorities to grant Usman all pension benefits in accordance with the law.
Reiterating previous precedents, the court once again emphasized that pension is an acquired and protected right that cannot be withdrawn for administrative or technical reasons.
Last week, the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) upheld a series of rulings by the Lahore High Court (LHC) directing the Employees’ Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) to provide a monthly old-age pension to workers who have completed more than 14 and a half years of insurable employment.
