Compassionate allowance
(Rule 65 of The Railway Services (Pension) Rules,1993)
RBE 79/2005 dt.09.05.2005
In this respect, attention is invited to Rule 65 of Railway Services (Pension) Rules, 1993. In terms of this rule, if the case of a removed/ dismissed Railway servant is deserving of special consideration, the authority competent to dismiss or remove the Railway servant from service may sanction a compassionate allowance not exceeding two-thirds of pension or gratuity or both, which would have been admissible to him if he had retired on compensation pension. The power to sanction or otherwise compassionate allowance is a discretionary power vested in the authority competent to remove/dismiss the Railway servant, to be exercised by that authority suo-motu, at the time of passing orders of dismissal or removal from service or immediately thereafter. Hence past cases where the competent authority, in exercise of its discretionary powers, had not sanctioned compassionate allowance at the time of passing orders of removal/dismissal or immediately thereafter, cannot be reopened for review on the basis of representations received from the removed/ dismissed employees and members of their family at a later date.
The existing guiding principles and procedures for grant of compassionate allowance or gratuity or both are reiterated hereunder or compliance by the concerned authorities.
i) The decision for grant of compassionate allowance or gratuity or both, or otherwise, shall be taken at the time of passing orders of removal/dismissal keeping in view the guidelines given in para 310 of the Manual of Railway Pension Rules, 1950.
[ii] If no mention about the compassionate allowance, etc. is made by the Competent authority while passing orders of removal/dismissal, the Concerned Head of Office shall resubmit the case file along with relevant information/guidelines to the concerned competent authority and obtains decision for or against sanction of compassionate allowance or gratuity or both.
[iii] If the decision is for grant of compassionate allowance, etc., necessary action to implement the same shall be taken by the Head of Office based on the decision of the appellate authority on the penalty orders passed by the disciplinary authority.
[iv] If no appeal is preferred within the target date, sanction order shall be issued immediately thereafter.
[v] If the appeal is preferred within the target date and a decision has already been taken for or against sanction of compassionate allowance, etc., and the same is not turned down by the appellate authority, such a decision shall be treated as final and no representation in this respect shall be entertained at a later date.
[vi] The decision to grant compassionate allowance, etc., shall be communicated through a separate order. This decision shall not form part of the order under which the penalty of removal or dismissal is imposed.
Recently, a case has come to the notice of the Board, wherein the competent authority, while imposing the penalty of removal from service on a Railway servant, sanctioned compassionate allowance without verifying the qualifying service rendered by the latter. Compassionate allowance being one of the classes of pensions and a minimum qualifying service of ten years is a prerequisite for sanction of any class of pension, before sanctioning compassionate allowance, it is absolutely necessary for the competent authority intending to sanction compassionate allowance to a person on whom the punishment ofremoval/dismissal is imposed, to satisfy itself that such a person had rendered not less than 10 years of qualifying service. Board, therefore, desire that the Head of Office should place before the competent authority the information about the qualifying service and other relevant facts concerning the Railway servant either at the time of imposing the penalty of removal/ dismissal or immediately thereafter to facilitate that authority to take a decision as regards sanction of compassionate allowance in terms of Rule 65 of Railway Services (Pension) Rules,. 1993 andg uidelines given in para 310 of Manual of Railway Pension Rules, 1950.
RBE 164/2008 dt.04.11.2008:-
In terms of proviso to Rule 65(1) of Railway Services(Pension) Rules,1993, the authority competent to dismiss or remove a Railway servant from service may, if the case is deserving of special consideration, sanction a Compassionate allowance not exceeding two-thirds of pension or gratuity or both which would have been admissible to him if he had retired on compensation pension. This is the discretionary power vested in the authority competent to dismiss or remove a railway servant, to be exercised by that authority suo-motu, at the time of passing orders of dismissal or removal from service or immediately thereafter.
Para 1 of Board’s letter of even number dated 9.5.2005 stipulates that past cases where the competent authority, in exercise of its discretionary powers, had not sanctioned compassionate allowance at the time of passing orders of removal/ dismissal or immediately thereafter, cannot be reopened for review on the basis of representations received from the removed/ dismissed employees and members of their family at a later date. In this connection, a number of representations have been received from different quarters for reviewing deserving genuine cases where the competent authority had not passed specific orders for or against grant of compassionate allowance. The issue has also been raised in DC/JCM Meeting held in December, 2007.
The matter has, therefore, been considered by the Board in consultation with Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare and it has been decided to reiterate that in cases where a decision has already been taken by the disciplinary authority not to grant compassionate allowance, such a decision is final, which should not be reviewed at any later stage. However, in partial modification of Board’s letter dated 09.05.2005, it has also been decided by the Board that out of the past cases in which the disciplinary authority had not passed any specific orders for or against grant of compassionate allowance, if any case appears to be deserving for consideration being given, may be reviewed by the disciplinary authority concerned on receipt of representations of dismissed/ removed employees or the family members of the deceased employees keeping in view the following conditions:
(i) Only those past cases can be reviewed where records pertaining to D&A proceedings and Service records are available. D&A proceedings are essential to take a fair decision duly considering the gravity of the offence and other aspects involved therein and to confirm that the question of sanction or otherwise of compassionate allowance was not considered by the competent authority at any stage. Service records are essential to adjudge the kind of service rendered by the dismissed/removed employee and to determine the net qualifying service for working out the quantum of compassionate allowance, if sanctioned.
(ii) Each case will have to be considered on its merits and conclusion reached on the question whether there were any extenuating factors associated with the case that would make the punishment of dismissal/removal, which though imposed in the interest of the Railways, appear unduly hard on the individual.
(iii) Not only the grounds on which the Railway servant was removed/dismissed, but also the kind of service rendered should be taken into account.
(iv) Award of compassionate allowance should not be considered if the Railway servant had been dishonest, which was a ground for his removal/dismissal.
(v) Though poverty is not an essential condition precedent to the award of compassionate allowance, due consideration can be made of the individual’s spouse and children dependent upon him.
On review of such cases, if the competent authority sanctions compassionate allowance to a dismissed/removed Railway servant, the same shall be effective from the date of removal/dismissal. In case the competent authority decides to sanction family pension to the spouse or eligible family member of the deceased Railway servant, compassionate allowance shall be sanctioned notionally from the date of dismissal/removal to make the family eligible for family pension and in such cases family pension shall be payable for the period commencing from the date following the date of death of the removed/dismissed Railway servant.
Procedure for Grant of Compassionate Allowance: In order to avoid delay in the payment of Compassionate Allowance, the following procedure should be adopted in cases relating to officers removed from service:-
On receipt of the orders of the Competent Authority removing an officer from service for misconduct, insolvency or inefficiency, the Head of the Office, if he proposes to recommend the grant of a Compassionate Allowance, should fill in the application for pension and send it to the Accounts Officer Concerned for report on the title to pension. The Head of the Office should not wait for an application from the officer. If the Competent authority while issuing orders of removal states that a certain proportion of the compensation pension is to be granted as compassionate allowance, no further sanction to pension is necessary, and all that is required is that, the Accounts Officer should certify to the admissibility of the pension on a pension application completed and signed by the Head of the Office as provided in (1) above.
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