Chandigarh, Aug. 21 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that the office of an employee about to retire is duty-bound to complete all the formalities by the date of superannuation so that pensionary benefits are released on time.

The high court directed chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to issue a circular to the "head of office" regarding timely disbursal of pensionary benefits, immediately after the retirement. The responsibility should be fixed of such heads in case of failure, it asserted.

".for such a lapse, ignorance, lack of knowledge regarding the rules, which are in existence since long, the head of office should be penalised for delayed payment of pensionary benefits to the employees. The employee sh...