NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to consider including the names of a live-in partner and the children born out of the relationship in the family pension and healthcare facilities of a retired government employee.
A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain passed the order on the employee’s petition, noting that he never concealed his relationship of over 40 years. The court held that treating the petitioner’s efforts to include the names of his partner and children as his family as “grave misconduct” to deny post-retirement benefits was erroneous. It made the observation while setting aside a 2018 order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
The court said there was no legitimate reason to withhold 50 per cent of the petitioner’s monthly pension and gratuity or to deny family pension to his dependents. In an order passed on January 7, the bench directed the authorities to release the amounts along with 6 per cent annual interest on delayed payments. It also directed them to consider including the partner and her children in the Pension Payment Order for family pension and CGHS facilities.