Statutory pension rights survive absent rules, and mandamus may compel rule-making and decision of the claim.

A statutory pension entitlement under Section 3 was held to arise independently of rule-making under Section 5, because the Act itself fixed the substantive right and policy while the rules were only for implementation. The Court treated Section 5 as delegated legislation, not conditional legislation, and held that prolonged failure to frame rules could not defeat accrued pension rights. In that setting, mandamus was considered permissible to compel the State to perform the delegated function, decide the pension application, and frame the rules within a fixed time, thereby preserving the statutory pension scheme.

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Issues: Whether the Court could direct the State to frame rules under the pension Act and to decide and grant the petitioner's pension application despite the absence of framed rules.

Analysis: The Act conferred a substantive right to pension under Section 3, and that right was not made dependent upon the making of rules under Section 5. Section 5 was held to be a case of delegated legislation, not conditional legislation, because the statute itself laid down the entitlement and the broad policy, while the rules were only to regulate the mode of implementation. The prolonged inaction in framing rules was found to frustrate the legislative object and to amount to an unjustified defeat of accrued statutory rights. In that situation, judicial intervention by way of mandamus was held to be permissible to compel performance of the delegated function.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to a direction compelling the State to decide the pension application and to frame the rules within a fixed time, and the State's reliance on the absence of rules was rejected.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded, and the Court enforced the statutory pension scheme by directing both consideration of the individual claim and timely rule-making.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute creates a substantive entitlement and delegates rule-making only for carrying out its purposes, prolonged failure to frame rules may be corrected by mandamus so that the statutory right is not defeated.

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