2006 (8) TMI 524

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.... to himself the right of withholding of withdrawing a pension or any part of it whether permanently or for a specified period, and the right of ordering the recovery from a pension of the whole or part of any pecuniary loss caused to Government, if the pensioner is found in a departmental or judicial proceeding to have been guilty of grave misconduct or negligence, during the period of his service, including service rendered on re-employment after retirement : Provided that (a) such departmental proceeding if instituted while the officer was in service, whether before his retirement or during his reemployment, shall after the final retirement of the officer, be deemed to be a proceeding under this article and shall be continued and co....

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....proceeding, on the date on which the complaint or report of police officer, on which the Magistrate takes cognizance, is made, and (ii) in the case of a civil proceeding, on the date on which the plaint is presented or, as the case may be, an application is made to a Civil Court." While granting leave to examine the vires of Rule 10(1), it was directed that even if the appeal succeeds, the benefit available to respondent No. 1 as per the judgment of the High Court will not be recalled. The High Court by the impugned judgment has held Rule 10(1) to be ultra vires the provisions of Articles 19(1)(f) and 31(1) of the Constitution. It was held that the pension was a property and its payment does not depend upon the discretion of the Gover....

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....as held in that case that an employee can be deprived of the pension by an authority of law. That authority, in the present case, is contained in the rules [Rule 10(1)], that were framed providing for withholding of the pension. Various State Rules or Regulations vest power for withholding or reduction of pension on compliance of principles of natural justice. The question of an order withholding or reducing pension being invalid and bad in law on a legally permissible ground is one thing but to hold the rule ultra vires is another. In State of Uttar Pradesh v. Brahm Datt Sharma and Anr. [(1987) 2 SCC 179], this Court observed that if the Government incurs pecuniary loss on account of misconduct or negligence of a Government servant and ....