Pensionary benefits as protected property cannot be withheld during pending proceedings without statutory authority.

Pensionary benefits are property and can be withheld only by authority of law; executive instructions cannot authorise deprivation where the governing pension rules do not confer such power. Rule 43(b) of the Bihar Pension Rules permitted withholding or withdrawal of pension only after a finding of grave misconduct in departmental or judicial proceedings, and did not allow withholding during pending proceedings. The same principle applied to gratuity and leave encashment, because no rule empowered the State to withhold those payments in the circumstances described.

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Issues: Whether, in the absence of an enabling provision in the pension rules, the State could withhold part of pension, gratuity and leave encashment during the pendency of departmental or criminal proceedings.

Analysis: Pension is not a bounty but a right earned by service and protected as property. The right to receive pension cannot be curtailed by executive instruction alone, because Article 300A of the Constitution of India requires deprivation of property only by authority of law. Rule 43(b) of the Bihar Pension Rules authorises withholding or withdrawal of pension only after a finding of grave misconduct in departmental or judicial proceedings, and does not permit withholding while proceedings remain pending. Administrative instructions may supplement rules where they are silent, but they cannot create a power to withhold pensionary benefits in the absence of statutory authority. The same reasoning applies to gratuity and leave encashment, for which the rules disclosed no power to withhold payment in the circumstances of the case.

Conclusion: The State had no authority to withhold part of the pension, gratuity or leave encashment during pendency of the proceedings, and the challenge to the High Court's direction failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Pensionary benefits, being property, can be withheld only by authority of law, and executive instructions cannot authorise their deprivation where the governing rules do not confer such power.

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