Determination and Authorisation of Amounts of Pension annd Gratuity
76. Preparation of list of railway servants due for retirement: (1) Every Head of Department of Head of Office, as the case may be, shall have a list prepared every six months, that is, on the 1st January, and the 1st July each year of all railway servants who are due to retire within the next twenty-four to thirty months of that date.
(2) A copy of every such list shall be supplied to the Accounts Officer concerned not later than the 31stJanuary or 31st July as the case may be, of that year.
(3) In the case of a railway servant retiring for reasons other than by way of superannuation, the Head of Office shall promptly inform the Accounts Officer concerned, as soon as the fact of such retirement becomes known to him.
(4) A copy of the intimation sent by the Head of Office to the Accounts Officer under sub-rule (3) shall also be endorsed to the Engineering Department of the Railway or the Directorate of Estates, Government of India, as the case may be if the railway servant concerned is an allottee of railway or Government accommodation.
77. Intimation to the Director of Estates regarding Issue of “No Demand Certificate” (1) The Head of Office shall write to the Directorate of Estates at least two years before the anticipated date of retirement of the railway servant, who is in occupation of a Government accommodation (hereinafter referred to as allottee), for the issue of a “No Demand Certificate” in respect of the period preceding eight months of the retirement of the allottee.
(2) On receipt of the intimation under sub-rule (1), the Directorate of Estates shall take further action as provided in rule 16.
78. Preparation of Pension Papers : Every Head of Office shall undertake the work of preparation of pension papers in Form 7, two years before the date on which a railway servant is due to retire on superannuation, or on the date on which he proceeds on leave preparatory to retirement, whichever is earlier.
79. Stages for the completion of Pension papers : (1) The Head of Office shall divide the period of preparatory work of two years referred to in rule 78 in the following three stages, namely: -
(a) First Stage “ Verification of Service “ (i) The Head of Office shall go through the service book of the railway servant and satisfy himself as to whether the certificates of verification for the entire service are recorded therein.
(ii) In respect of the unverified portion or portions of service, he shall arrange to verify the portion or portions of such service, as the case may be, with reference to pay bills, acquittance, rolls or other relevant records and record necessary Certificates in the service book.
(iii) If the service for any period is not capable of being verified in the manner specified in sub-clause (i) and sub-clause (ii), that period of service having been rendered by the railway servant in another Office or Department, a reference shall be made to the Head of Office in which the railway servant is shown to have served during that period for the purpose of verification.
(iv) If any portion of service rendered by a railway servant is not capable of being verified in the manner specified in sub-clause (i), or sub-clause (ii), or sub-clause (iii), the railway servant shall be asked to file a written statement on plain paper stating that he had in fact rendered that period of service and shall, at the foot of the statement, make and subscribe to a declaration as to the truth of that statement, and shall in support of such declaration produce all documentary evidence and furnish all information which is in his power to produce or furnish.
(v) The Head of Office shall, after taking into consideration the facts in the written statement and the evidence produced and the information furnished by that railway servant in support of the said period of service, admit that portion of service as having been rendered for the purpose of calculating the pension of that railway servant.
(b) Second Stage “ Making good omission in the service book” (i) The Head of Office while scrutinising the certificates of verification of service, shall also identify if there are any other omissions, imperfections or deficiencies which have a direct bearing on the determination of emoluments and the service qualifying for pension.
(ii) Every effort shall be made to complete the verification of service, as in clause (a) and to make good omissions, imperfications or deficiencies referred to in sub-clause (i) of this clause and any omissions, imperfections or deficiencies including the portion of service shown as unverified in the service book which it has not been possible to verify in accordance with the procedure laid down in clause (a) shall be ignored and service qualifying for pension shall be determined on the basis of the entries in the service book.
(iii) For the purpose of calculation of average emoluments, the Head of Office shall verify from the service book the correctness of the emoluments drawn or to be drawn during the last ten months of service and in order to ensure that the emoluments during the last ten months of service book, the Head of Office may verify the correctness of emoluments for the period of twenty four months only preceding the date of retirement of a railway servant, and not for any period prior to that date.
(c) Third Stage: As soon as the second stage is completed and in any case not later than ten months prior to the date of retirement of the railway servant, the Head of office shall take the following action:-
(i) He shall furnish to the retiring railway servant a certificate regarding the length of qualifying service proposed to be admitted for purpose of pension and gratuity as also the emoluments and the average emoluments proposed to be reckoned with for retirement gratuity and pension. In case the certified service and emoluments as indicated by the Head of office are not acceptable to him he shall furnish to the Head of office the reasons for non-acceptance inter alia supported by the relevant documents in support of his claim.
(ii) In case of any difficulty in determining the length of qualifying service on account of non-availability of service records, the retiring railway servant shall be asked to file a written statement of service as provided in clause (ii) of sub-rule (1) and sub-rule (2) of rule 91.
(iii) Forward to the retiring railway servant Form 8 advising him to submit the same duly completed in all respects so as to reach the Head of office not later than eight months prior to his date of retirement
(Authority: - Notification vide letter no. F (E) III/94/PN-1/31 (Amendment) dated 3.2.95 �SO No. 511)
(2) Action under clause (a) (b) and (c) of sub-rule (1) shall be completed eight months prior to the date of retirement of the railway servant.
80. Completion of Pension Papers - The Head of office shall complete Part1 of Form 7 not later than six months of the date of retirement of the railway servant.
81. Forwarding of Pension papers to Accounts Officer - (1) After complying with the requirement of rule 79 and 80, the Head of Office shall forward to the Accounts Officer Form 7 and Form 8 duly completed with a covering letter in Form 9 along with service book of the railway servant duly completed, up-to-date, and any other documents relied upon for the verification of service.
(2) The Head of Office shall retain a copy each of the Forms referred to in sub-rule (1) for his records.
(3) Where the payment is desired in another circle of accounting unit, the Head of Office shall send Form 7, in duplicate, to the Accounts Officer.
(4) The papers referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be forwarded to the Accounts Officer not later than six months before the date of retirement of the railway servant.
82. Intimation to Accounts Officer regarding any event having bearing on pension - If after the pension papers have been forwarded to the Accounts officer within the period specified in sub-rule (4) of rule 81, any event occurs which has a bearing on the amount of pension admissible, the fact shall be promptly reported to the Accounts Officer by the Head of Office.
83. Intimation of the particulars of railway dues to the Accounts Officer - (1) The Head of Office after ascertaining the railway dues as in rule 15, shall furnish the particulars thereof to the Accounts Officer at least two months before the date of retirement of a railway servant so that the dues are recovered out of the gratuity before its payment is authorised.
(2) If, after the particulars of railway dues have been intimated to the Accounts Officer under sub-rule (1), any additional railway dues come to the notice of the Head of Office, such dues shall be promptly reported to the Accounts Officer.
84. Payment of provisional pension and gratuity through money order or bank draft - If the provisional pension or gratuity or both, sanctioned under sub-rule (4) of rule 91, is desired to be paid by the pensioner through money order or bank draft, the same shall be remitted to him through money order or bank draft at his cost:
Provided that in the case of any pensioner who has been authorised payment of provisional pension not exceeding two hundred and fifty rupees per mensem (inclusive of the amount of relief on pension) that amount shall, at the request of the pensioner, be remitted to him by money order at Railways expense.
85. Authorisation of pension and gratuity by the Accounts Officer �
(1) (a) On receipt of pension papers referred to in 81, the Accounts Officer shall apply the requisite checks, record the account enfacement in Part II of Form 7 and assess the amount of pension and gratuity and issue the pension payment order not later than one month in advance of the date of the retirement of the retirement of the railway servant if the date of the retirement of the railway servant if the pension is payable in his payable in his circle of accounting unit.
(b) If the pension is payable in another circle of accounting unit, the Accounts Officer shall send the pension payment order along with
a copy of Form 7 and the accounts enforcement to the Accounts Officer of that accounting unit for arranging payment.
(2) The amount of gratuity as determined by the Accounts Officer under clause (a) of sub-rule (1) shall be intimated to the Head of Office with the marks that the amount of gratuity may be drawn for disbursement to the retired railway servant after adjusting the Government dues, if any, referred to in rule 15.
(3) The amount of gratuity withheld under sub-rule (5) of rule 16 shall be adjusted by the Head of Office against the outstanding licence fee intimated by the Directorate of Estates and the balance, if any, refunded to the retired railway servant.
86. Railway servants on deputation: (1) In the case of a railway servant who retires while on deputation to a Central Government Department, action to authorise pension and gratuity in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter shall be taken by the Head of Office of the parent Department.
(Authority: - Notification vide letter no. F (E) III/94/PN-1/31 (Amendment) dated 3.2.95 �SO No. 511)
(2) In the case of a railway servant who retires from service, while on deputation to a State Government or while on foreign service, action to authorise pension and gratuity in accordance with the provision of this chapter shall be taken by the Head of Office of the cadre authority which sanctioned deputation to the State Government or to foreign service.
(3) In the case of Central Government employees belonging to various Ministries or Departments who happen to be on deputation to Railways at the time of their retirement, their pension cases shall be handled by the parent Ministry or Department from where they proceeded on deputation.
87. Interest on delayed payment of gratuity: - (1) If the payment of gratuity has been authorised after three months from the date when its payment became due on superannuation and it is clearly established that the delay in payment was attributable to administrative lapse, interest at such rate as may be specified from time to time by the Central Government in this behalf on that amount of gratuity in respect of the period beyond three months shall be paid.
Provided that the delay in the payment was not caused on account of failure on the part of the railway servant to comply with the procedure laid down in this Chapter.
(2) Every case of delayed payment of gratuity shall be considered by the General Manager or Administrative Head of the Railway Unit, as the case may be, and where the said General Manager or Administrative Head is satisfied that the delay in the payment of gratuity was caused on account of administrative lapse, he shall order for arranging the payment of interest. The powers to pass order for payment of interest on delayed payment of death-cum-retirement gratuity shall rest with General Manager or Administrative Head of the Railway Unit and shall not be delegated to any lower authority.
(3) In all cases where the payment of interest has been ordered, the railway shall fix the responsibility and take disciplinary action against the railway servant or servants concerned who are found responsible for the delay in the payment of gratuity.
(4) If as a result of Government’s decision taken subsequent to the retirement of a railway servant, the amount of gratuity already paid on his retirement is enhanced on account of
(a) grant of emoluments higher than the emoluments on which gratuity
already paid was determined, or
(b) liberalisation in the provisions of these rules from a date prior to the date of retirement of the railway servant concerned, no interest on the arrears of gratuity shall be paid.
(5) Gratuity becomes due immediately on retirement and in case of a railway servant dying in service, action for finalising his pension and death-cum-retirement gratuity shall be paid.
88. Date of retirement to be notified: When a railway servant retires from service in the case of a gazetted railway servant, a notification in the Official Gazette, and in the case of a non-gazetted railway servant, an office order, shall be issued specifying the date of retirement within a week of such date and a copy of every such notification or office order, as the case may be, shall be forwarded immediately to the Accounts Officer.
Provided that where a notification in the Official Gazette or an office order, as the case may be, regarding the grant of leave preparatory to retirement to a railway servant is issued, a further notification or office order that the railway servant has actually retired on the expiry of such leave shall not be necessary unless the leave is curtailed and the retirement is for any reason ant-dated or postponed.