Revised pension scale of the West Bengal Judicial Officers retired on or after 01.01.2006

Government of West Bengal

Judicial Department

Writers’ Buildings

Kolkata-700001.

G.O. No, 7010/JD/L/2S-70/09

Dated- 25th Oct., 2010

Subject: Revision of Pension/Family Pension, Gratuity Commutation of Pension, Medical Allowance, Domestic Help Allowance of the Members of West Bengal Judicial Service who retired on or after 01.01.2006 as per recommendation of Justice Padmanabhan Committee which had been accepted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India with some modifications by the order dated 26.7.2010 in 1A No. 244 in Writ-Petition (Civil) No. 1022 of 1989 (All India Judges Association & Ors. -V-Union of India & Ors.)

The undersigned is directed to refer to the above noted subject and to state that the Governor, after careful consideration of the matter, has been pleased to decide that the retirement benefits in respect of the State Judicial Officers, irrespective of their ranks, who retired on or after 01.01.2006 and whose pay has been revised as per G.O. No. 440//JD/L/2S-70/09 dated 8^th July, 2010, shall be determined as under :

Pension :

A Judicial Officer retiring in accordance with the provisions of the West Bengal (Death-cum-Retirement Benefit) Rules, 1971, as amended from time to time, but before completion of minimum qualifying service of ten years, shall not be entitled to pension, but nevertheless he/she shall continue to be entitled to gratuity.

Last pay drawn before retirement shall be taken as emoluments for the purpose of calculating pension and the West Bengal (Death-cum-Retirement Benefit) Rules, 1971, shall be applicable in respect of all categories of Judicial Officers of this State.

With effect from 1.1.2006 linkage of full pension with 33 years of qualifying service as per Memo No. 10771-F dated 29.11.09, shall be dispensed with. Once a Judicial Officer has rendered a minimum qualifying service 20 (Twenty) years, pension shall be paid at 50% of the last basic pay draw. For the Judicial Officers who at the time of retirement have rendered qualifying service for 10 (Ten) years or more but less than 20 (Twenty) years, proportionate reduction shall be made while calculating the amount of pension.

There shall not be any ceiling limit on the maximum monthly pension payable.

Dearness Relief :

Retired Judicial Officers shall be entitled to get Dearness Relief as sanctioned by the Central Govt. from time to time.

Additional Pension :

Such additional quantum of pension will be payable to the retired Judicial Officers as indicated in the following table w.e.f. 1.1.2006 :

The pension sanctioning authority shall ensure that the date of birth and the age of pensioner is invariably indicated in the single comprehensive Form to facilitate the Accountant General (A&E), West Bengal to record the same in the Pension Payment Order (PPO) to be issued in favour of the pensioners for payment of additional pension by the Pension Disbursing Authority as soon as it becomes due. The amount of additional pension will be shown distinctly in the P.P.O.

Domestic Help Allowance :

Domestic Help Allowance to all the Judicial Officers retired on or after 1.1.2006 has been raised from Rs. 1,250/- per mensem to Rs. 2,500/- per mensem.

JD/L/2S-23/04 (Pt.I)

Medical Allowance :

Medical Allowance to the Judicial Officers retired on or after 1.1.2006 to meet the day-to-day medical expenditure has been raised from Rs. 100/- per mensem to Rs. 1,500/-per mensem. In addition to that the retired Judicial Officers shall continue to enjoy the other facilities with regard to treatment and reimbursement of medical expenditure as per Memo No. 10771-F dated 29^th November, 2004.

Gratuity :

The payment of Death-cum-Retiring Gratuity and retirement gratuity in respect of the retired Judicial Officers shall be guided by the provisions of W.B. Service (Death-cum-Retirement Benefit) Rules, 1971. The ceiling limit of gratuity is, however, raised from Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh w.e.f. 1^st January, 2006.

Commutation of Pension :

A retired Judicial Officer shall continue to be entitled to commute for a lump sum payment upto 50% of his revised pension.

The existing table of commutation for pension annexed to the W.B.S. (Commutation of Pension) Rules, 1983, shall be substituted by a new table at Annexure-1.

The revised table of commutation value for pension will be used for all commutation of pension, which became absolute after the date of issue of the Memorandum.

In case of those pensioners in whose case commutations of pension became absolute on or after the 1st day of January, 2006, but before the issue of this memorandum, the revised table of commutation value for pension will be used for payment of commutation of pension based on pre-revised Pay/Pension. Such pensioners shall have an option to commute the pension that has become additionally commutable on account of retrospective revision of Pay/Pension on implementation of the recommendation of Justice Padmanabhan Committee. On exercising such option by the pensioner, the revised table of commutation value of pension will be used for the commutation of the additional amount of pension that has become commutable on account of retrospective revision of Pay/Pension.

Family Pension :

Family Pension shall be calculated @ 30% of the revised Basic Pay last drawn by the pensioner. There shall not be any ceiling limit on the monthly family pension payable.

Additional Family Pension :

In addition to the Family Pension calculated in Para (i) above, the quantum of family pension available to the old Family Pensioners shall be increased as indicated in the following table w.e.f. 1.1.2006 :

Domestic Help Allowance :

The family pensioners are also entitled to get Domestic Help Allowance @ Rs. 1000/-per mensem w.e.f. 1^st January, 2006.

Medical Allowance :

The family pensioners shall also be entitled to get monthly Medical Allowance @ Rs. 750/- per, mensem w.e.f. 1st January, 2006.

Dearness Relief :

The family pensioners shall also be entitled to get Dearness Relief as sanctioned by the Central Govt. from time to time.

Mode of Drawing & Disbursing of revision pension/family pension to the Judicial Officers who retired on or after 1.1.2006 but drawing pension/family pension at the pre-revised rate :

All the treasury officers disbursing pension to the retired Judicial Offices/family pensioners at the pre-revised rate are hereby authorised to pay revised pension/family pension etc. to the existing pensioner/family pensioners at the revised rates as shown in Annexure-II without any further authorisation from the Accountant General (A&E), West Bengal. The Accountant General (A&E), West Bengal will issue authority for this payment to all public sector banks in Kolkata and also to the Accountant Generals of other States.

A suitable entry regarding the revised pension/family pension and other benefits shall be made by the Treasury Officers in both halves of the Pension Payment Order. To facilitate the act of entering necessary changes in the pension/family pension and other relief in both halves of the Pension Payment Order, the concerned pensioner shall submit his P.P.O. book to the treasury/public sector bank in Kolkata as the case may be and intimation regarding disbursement of the revised pension and other relief may be sent to the treasury officers to the public sector bank in Kolkata to the accountant General (A&E), West Bengal who issued the P.P.O. in the form given at Annexure-III to this Memorandum to enable the latter to update the P.P.O. register maintained by them.

The revised pension / family pension as worked out in Columns 5 & 6 of Annexure-II shall be treated as final basic pension/family pension w.e.f. 1.1.2006 and shall qualify for the grant of relief on pension/family pension sanctioned thereafter.

The amount of gratuity, if any, paid earlier to the Judicial Officers, who retired on or after 1.1.2006, according to the Rules prevailing at the material time will be adjusted against the revised gratuity calculated on the basis of the revised emoluments, i.e. last pay drawn by the pensioner, subject to the maximum ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs. The pension sanctioning authority will make the revised calculation and send the revised calculation of the gratuity showing the adjustment to the Accountant General (A&E), West Bengal for authorisation of payment of the balance amount of gratuity. This exercise has to be completed within two months from the date of issue of this Memorandum so that payments of arrears may be completed by 31st March, 2011 as per the direction of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

The option for commutation of pension as referred to in Para-C of this Memorandum shall be exercised within one month from the date of issuance of this Memorandum before the Pension Sanctioning Authority.

The arrears of pension, gratuity and other relief from 1.1.2006 till the date of actual revision shall be paid by one instalment. If any pensioner/family pensioner has expired during this period the arrear pension shall be paid to his/her nominee(s) or in case if there is no nomination to his/her legal heir(s).

This order issues with the concurrence of the Finance (audit) Department vide their U.O. No. 3255 dated 21.10.2010.

Sd/-

(K. Y. S. Manhas)

Principal Secretary-in-Charge

to the Government of West Bengal

Judicial Department

Annexure-I

REVISED COMMUTATION VALUE FOR A PENSION OF Re. 1 PER ANNUM In terms of Memo. Mo. 201-F(Pen) dated 25.02.2009

[Basis: LIC(94-96) Ultimate Tables and 8.00% interest]

Annexure-II

Table showing existing basic pay, dearness pay, total emoluments, revised pay revised pension, revised family pension

**Total emoluments consist of basic pay and dearness pay in the previous scale taken for the purpose of determining the pre-revised basic /faulty pension

Annexure-III

To

The Accountant General (A&E), West Bengal

Treasury Buildings,

Kolkata-700001

Form of intimation by the Pension Disbursing Authority to the P.P.O. issuing authority regarding

Pension and Family Pension in terms of the Judicial Department Memo No ……………………..

dated.

Signature of the Pension

Disbursing Authority