Pension is succour for post-retirement period and it is not a bounty payable at will, but a social welfare measure as a post-retirement entitlement to maintain the dignity of the employee, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said.
The top court said that pension facilitates a retired Government employee to live with dignity in his winter of life and, thus, such benefit should not be unreasonably denied to an employee, more so on technicalities. Coming to the rescue of a man claiming his entitlement for the past 13-years despite having worked with government departments for 32 years, a bench headed by Justices S K Kaul ordered the Kerala government to include the period of service rendered by him as casual workers for determining his pensionary benefits.
