Jaipur. A single judge bench of Rajasthan High Court put an interim stay on a govt order to stop family pension of an 88-year-old woman on the basis of giving an additional amount to her. Along with this, the court issued a notice to the pension director, treasury officer (pension), and manager of SBI branch at Shastri Nagar in Jaipur, seeking their reply.Justice Anand Sharma gave this order while hearing the preliminary petition of Shashikala Babel on Sept 4. The copy of the order was uploaded Monday.Vimal Chaudhary, counsel for the petitioner, told court that the petitioner’s husband, Fateh Singh Babel, retired from the state’s department of personnel as assistant secretary in Sept 1994, after which his pension started.“When he died in Aug 2008, the department started giving a family pension to the petitioner. On Dec 26, 2024, the treasury officer wrote a letter to the petitioner informing her that she was paid an additional amount of Rs 8.76 lakh and asked for the recovery. Later, the bank stopped paying her pension from Jan this year. She is an 88-year-old woman and is completely dependent on this pension. In the absence of this, her living has been difficult for the last nine months,” said Chaudhary.Chaudhary argued that the Supreme Court had decided that even if an additional amount was paid to a retired person, it cannot be recovered.
