Cuttack: Orissa High Court has ruled that pension is "neither a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer".

The court said: "More particularly, pension is not an ex gratia payment but it is a payment for the past service rendered."

The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi said: "Pension is a social welfare measure rendering socio-economic justice to those who, in the heyday of their life, ceaselessly toiled for employer on an assurance that in their old age they would not be left in the lurch."

The bench observed this while dismissing on grounds of merit a petition filed by the state government against an order issued by the State Administrative Tribunal.

It issued the order on March 14, 2000, on delay in payment of pensionary benefits to a state government employee who had taken voluntary retirement on March 9, 1994. The state government had challenged it in the high court on August 30, 2006.

The term (pension) has been judicially defined as a stated alliance of stipend made in consideration of past service or a surrender of rights or emoluments to one retired from service.

"Thus the pension payable to a government employee is earned by rendering long and efficient service and therefore can be said to be a deferred portion of the compensation for service rendered," the bench observed.

"Since there was delay in payment of pensionary benefits to the opposite party (Jagannath Pattanaik), the direction given by the tribunal for grant of interest on gratuity amount @ 7% after one year of retirement till actual payment and @ 18% on accumulated pension from the time it was due till the actual payment, in our considered opinion cannot be said to be erroneous," the bench ruled in its December 14 order. "As such, this court is not inclined to interfere with the finding as given by the tribunal which is hereby upheld. Writ petition thus stands dismissed being devoid of any merits."

The bench held that pension was not only compensation for loyal service rendered in the past, but also had a broader significance.

"It is a measure of social-economic justice which inheres economic security in the fall of life when physical and mental powers is ebbing corresponding to aging process and therefore, one is required to fall back on savings," the bench further observed.