Delhi HC upholds construction workers' right to pension

Delhi HC upholds construction workers’ right to pension

NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court recently observed that construction workers’ right to pension cannot be
done away with merely over hyper-technical issues or for non-production of original bank slips or serial
number of the notary records.
The court said this while granting relief to a construction worker who had applied to Delhi Building and
Other Construction Workers Welfare Board for release of her pension according to Rule 372 but didn’t receive the amount.Taking note of the fact that a large number of construction workers are either illiterate or even semiilliterate and belong to a rural background, the single judge bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh said their pension benefit application must be processed without any delay

The court directed that the applicable pension to the construction worker, Badam Verva, be disbursed to
her with interest at the rate of 6% with effect from February 06, 2022. The court ordered that the amount
be disbursed by July 1, 2023.
“Considering the nature of this case and due to the fact that the petitioner has had to undergo a second
round of litigation, that too after exercising the statutory appeal, and was denied her rightful pension for a
considerably long period, costs of Rs 25,000 are awarded to the petitioner. The said costs shall be paid by
the board to the petitioner within eight weeks,” the court said.

The petitioner’s application for pension was rejected on the ground that she was not a member of the
board on the date of superannuation.
Earlier, a writ petition was filed by the construction worker, which was disposed of by the single judge
bench in April 2022 with a direction to the board to pass appropriate orders with regard to her claim for pensionary benefits. Despite the HC order, the application was not decided. Following this, she filed an application seeking a recall of the order. The board issued a second rejection letter to the petitioner, following which the worker moved a fresh petition for sanction and release of her pension.