[Act No. 23 of 1971]1
An Act to consolidate
and amend the law relating to pensions and grants by Government of
money or land-revenue.
Whereas it is expedient to
consolidate and amend the law relating to pensions Preamble and
grants by Government of money of land-revenue;
It is hereby enacted as
follows: -
I - Preliminary
1. Short title and
extent
This Act may be called the Pensions’ Act,
1871;
2[In so far as it relates to Union pensions, it extends to
the whole of India and in so far as it relates to other pensions, it
extends] to 3[the whole of India except 4[the territories which,
immediately and before the 1st November, 1956, were comprised in
Part B States]].
5[***]
6[***]
[Section 2. - Repealed by Repealing Act, 1938]
3. Interpretation-
section
In this Act, the expression "grant of money or land-revenue"
includes any thing payable on the part of Government in respect of
any right, privilege, perquisite or office.
7[3A.
Definition
The expression "the appropriate Government" means, in
relation to 8[Union] pensions, the Central Government, and in
relation to other pensions, the 9[State] Government.]
II- Rights to
Pensions
4. Bar of suits relating
to pensions
Except as hereinafter provided, no Civil Court shall
entertain any suit relating to any pension or grant of money or
land-revenue conferred or made by the 10[Government or by] any
former Government, whatever may have been the nature of the payment,
claim or right for which such pension or grant may have been
substituted.
5. Claims to be made to
Collector, Deputy Commissioner, or other authorized
officer
Any person having a claim relating to any such pension or
grant may prefer such claim to the Collector of the District or
Deputy Commissioner or other officer authorised in this behalf by
the 11[appropriate Government], and such Collector, Deputy
Commissioner or other officer shall dispose of such claim in
accordance with such rules as the Chief Revenue Authority may,
subject to the general control of the 11[appropriate Government],
from time to time, prescribe in this behalf.
6. Civil Court empowered
to take cognizance of such claims
A Civil Court, otherwise
competent to try the same, shall take cognizance of any such claim
upon receiving a certificate from such Collector, Deputy
Commissioner or other officer authorized in that behalf that the
case may be so tried, but shall not make any order or decree in any
suit whatever by which the liability of Government to pay any such
pension or grant as aforesaid is affected directly or
indirectly.
7. Pensions for lands
held under grants in perpetuity
Nothing in sections four and six
applies to-
(1) any inam of the class referred to in section 1 of Madras
Act No. IV of 1862.
(2) pensions heretofore granted
by Government in the territories respectively subject to the
Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal and the North-Western Provinces,
either wholly or in part as an indemnity for loss sustained by the
resumption by a Native Government of lands held under sanads
purporting to confer a right in perpetuity. Such pensions shall not
be liable to resumptions on the death of the recipient, but every
such pension shall be capable of alienation and descent, and may be
sued and recovered in the same manner as any other
property.
III- Mode of Payment
8. Payment to be made by
Collector, Deputy Commissioner, or other authorised
officer
All pensions or grants by Government of money or
land-revenue shall be paid by the Collector or the Deputy
Commissioner or other authorized officer, subject to such rules12 as
may, from time to time, be prescribed by the Chief Controlling
Revenue Authority.
9. Saving or rights in
respect of the recovery of land revenue
Nothing in section 4
and 8 shall affect the right of a grantee of land-revenue, whose
claim to such grant is admitted by Government, to recover such
revenue from the persons liable to pay the same under any law for
the time being in force for the recovery of the rent of
land.
10. Commutation of
pensions
The 11[appropriate Government] may, with the consent of the
holder, order the whole or any part of his pension or grant of money
or land-revenue to be commuted for a lump sum on such terms as may
seem fit.
IV- Miscellaneous
1311. Exemption of
pension from attachment
No pension granted or continued
by Government on political considerations, or on account of past
services or present infirmities or as a compassionate
allowance,
and no money due or to become due on account of any such
pension or allowance,
shall be liable to seizure,
attachment or sequestration by process of any Court 14[***] at the
instance of a creditor, for any demand against the pensioner, or in
satisfaction of a decree or order of any such Court.
15[This section applies
14[***] also to pension granted or continued, after the separation
of Burma from India16, by the Government of
Burma.]
12. Assignments, etc.,
in anticipation of pension, to be void
All assignments, agreements,
orders, sales and securities of every kind made by the persons
entitled to any pension, pay or allowance mentioned in section
eleven, in respect of any money not payable at or before the making
thereof, on account of any such pension, pay or allowance, or for
giving or assigning any future interest therein, are null and
void.
17[12A. Nomination by pensioner to receive moneys
outstanding on account of pension
Notwithstanding anything
contained in section 12 or in any other law for the time being in
force,-
(a) any person to whom any pension mentioned in section 11
is payable by the Government of India or out of the Consolidated
Fund of India (such person being hereinafter referred to as the
pensioner) may nominate any other person (hereinafter referred to as
the nominee), in such manner and in such form as may be prescribed
by the Central Government by rules, to receive after the death of
the pensioner all money payable to the pensioner on account of such
pension at, before or after the date of such nomination and which
remain unpaid immediately before the death of the pensioner;
and
(b)
the nominee shall be entitled, on the death of the pensioner, to
receive, to the exclusion of all other persons, all such money which
have so remained unpaid:
Provided that if the nominee
predeceases the pensioner, the nomination shall, so far as it
relates to the right conferred upon the said nominee, become void
and of no effect:
Provided further that where provision has been duly made in
the nomination, in accordance with the rules made by the Central
Government, conferring upon some other person the right to receive
all such moneys, which have so remained unpaid, in the event of the
nominee predeceasing the pensioner, such right shall, upon the
decease as aforesaid of the nominee, pass to such other
person.]
13. Reward to
informers
Whoever proves to the satisfaction of the 18[appropriate
Government] that any pension is fraudulently or unduly received by
the person enjoying the benefit thereof, shall be entitled to a
reward equivalent to the amount of such pension for the period of
six months.
14. Power to make
rules
15[In each 19[State]] the Chief Controlling Revenue
Authority may, with the consent of the 18[appropriate Government],
from time to time, make rules consistent with this Act respecting
all or any of the following matters :-
(1) the place and time at which,
and the person to whom, any pension shall be
paid;
(2) inquiries into the identity of
claimants;
(3) records to be kept on the subject of
pensions;
(4) transmission of such records;
(5) correction of such
records;
(6) delivery of certificates to pensioners;
(7) registers of such
certificates;
(8) reference to the Civil Court, under section six, of
persons claiming a right of succession to, or participation in,
pensions or grants of money or land-revenue payable by
Government;
and generally for the guidance of officers under this
Act.
All
such rules shall be published in the 20[Official Gazette], and shall
thereupon have the force of law.
Comment: The question is
whether mother is a dependent. In view of the express definition of
the family, mother has not been included as a member of the family
to claim any family pension from the Government, much less after the
maximum period of ten years. State of Gujarat v. Sarti Devi, AIR
1996 SUPREME COURT 937
21[15. Power of Central
Government to make rules
The Central Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette, make rules to provide for all
or any of the following matters, namely:-
(a) the manner and form in which
any nomination may be made under section 12A and the manner and form
in which such nomination may be cancelled or varied by another
nomination;
(b) the manner in which provision may be made, for the
purposes of the second proviso to section 12A, in any such
nomination for conferring on some person other than the nominee the
right to receive moneys payable to the nominee if such nominee
predeceases the pensioner.
16. Laying of
Rules
Every rule made by the Central Government under this Act and
every rule made under section 14 by a Chief Controlling Revenue
Authority with the consent of the Central Government, shall be laid,
as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of Parliament,
while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may
be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions,
and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the
session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in
making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the
rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only
in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so,
however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without
prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that
rule.]
[SCHEDULE- Repealed by
the Repealing Act, 1938]