New Delhi: Forced to face the rigours of prolonged litigation in the twilight of his life, a retired employee of Punjab National Bank has finally got justice with a court here directing the Bank to pay him pension dues for the last six years.

Additional Senior Civil Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal also slammed PNB for contesting the case without justifiable ground apparently to "delay and deprive" Krishan Gopal Goswami of his post-retirement benefits.

"Pension is not a charity but a legal right, which he has been deprived of despite having worked faithfully with the bank throughout his career and requires it in the twilight of his life when he needs security by way of pension to live a life full of dignity," the court said in a recent order.

Terming the long wait of Goswami as "unfortunate," the judge took exception to PNB s appeal against a lower court order and said "Since PNB is a nationalized bank and an undertaking of the Government of India, it should not have unnecessarily contested the genuine claims of its employee to deprive him of his pension."

Goswami, a resident of Krishna Nagar in east Delhi, was employed with PNB s Nizamuddin branch as a special assistant. Since he was asked not to come to the office due to a departmental proceeding against him, he posted his filled up pension option form to the authorities in 1996.

He, however, was shattered to receive a letter from PNB authorities in January 2001,stating he was not entitled to pension as he had failed to apply for it in time and was compensated only with a lump sum amount without his consent, Goswami said in his complaint.

Source : PTI