Death Gratuity in case of Death of Government Servant During Service: Chapter VII – CCS (Payment of Gratuity under NPS) Rules, 2021

48. Obtaining of claims for death gratuity.– (1) Where the Head of Office has received an intimation about the death of a Government servant while in service, he shall ascertain, –

(a) (i) if the deceased Government servant had nominated any person or persons to receive the gratuity ; and

(ii) if the deceased Government servant had not made any nomination or the nomination made does not subsist, the person or persons to whom the gratuity may be payable.

(b) The Head of Office shall, then, address the person concerned in Form 8 , for making a claim in Form 9.

(2) Where on the date of death, the Government servant was an allottee of Government accommodation, the Head of Office shall address the Directorate of Estates for the issue of No Demand Certificate in accordance with the provisions of sub-rule (1) of rule 54.

49. Completion of Form 10.- (1) (a) The Head of Office while taking action to obtain claim or claims from the family in accordance with the provisions of rule 48 shall simultaneously undertake the completion of Form 10 and the work shall be completed within one month of the date on which intimation regarding the date of death of the Government servant has been received.

(b) The Head of Office shall go through the service book of the deceased Government servant and satisfy himself as to whether certificates of verifications of service for the entire service are recorded therein.

(c) (i) If there are any periods of unverified service, the Head of Office shall accept the unverified portion of service as verified on the basis of the available entries in the service book and for this purpose the Head of Office may rely on any other relevant material to which he may have ready access.

(ii) While accepting the unverified portion of service, the Head of Office shall ensure that service was continuous and was not forfeited on account of dismissal, removal or resignation from service, or for participation in strike.

(2) (a) For the purpose of determination of emoluments for death gratuity, the Head of Office shall confine the verification of the correctness of emoluments for a maximum period of one year preceding the date of death of the Government servant.

(b) In case the Government servant was on extraordinary leave on the date of death, the correctness of the emoluments for a maximum period of one year which he drew preceding the date of the commencement of the extraordinary leave shall be verified.

(3) The process of determination of qualifying service and qualifying emoluments shall be completed within one month of the receipt of intimation regarding the date of death of the Government servant and the amount of death gratuity shall also be calculated accordingly.

50. Determination of the amount of death gratuity where service records are incomplete.- The service book shall be maintained properly and if in any particular case, the service book has not been maintained properly despite the instructions of the Government on the subject and it is not possible for the Head of Office to accept the unverified portion of service as verified on the basis of entries in the service book, the Head of Office shall not wait for the verification of entire spell of service and shall determine the amount of death gratuity in respect of a deceased Government servant in the following manner, namely :-

(i) if the entire service rendered by the deceased Government servant is not capable of being verified and accepted, the amount of death gratuity shall be determined on provisional basis in accordance with sub-rule (2) of rule 22 on the basis of the length of qualifying service from out of the continuous spell of verified and accepted service immediately preceding the date of death of the Government servant and the amount of death gratuity, so determined shall be authorised to the beneficiaries on provisional basis within one month of the receipt of intimation of date of death of the Government servant;

(ii) final amount of the gratuity shall be determined by the Head of Office on the acceptance and verification of the entire spell of service which shall be done by the Head of Office within a period of six months from the date on which the authority for the payment of provisional gratuity was issued and the balance, if any, becoming payable as a result of determination of the final amount of death gratuity shall then be authorised to the beneficiaries.

51. Forwarding the Form 7 and Form 10 to the Accounts Officer.–

(1) On receipt of claim or claims, the Head of Office shall complete item 9 of Form 10 and send the said Form in original to the Accounts Officer with a covering letter in Form 7 along with the Government servant’s service book duly completed up to date and any other documents relied upon for the verification of the service claimed and this shall be done not later than one month of the receipt of claim by the Head of Office.

(2) The Head of Office shall retain one copy of the Form 10 for his office record.

(3) The Head of Office shall draw the attention of the Accounts Officer to the following details of Government dues outstanding against the deceased Government servant, namely: –

(a) Government dues as ascertained and assessed in term of rule 54 and recoverable out of the gratuity before payment is authorized; (b) amount of gratuity to be held over partly for adjustment of Government dues which have not been assessed so far and partly as margin for adjustment in the light of the final determination of the gratuity;

(c) the maximum amount of gratuity to be held over for the purpose of clause (b) shall be limited to ten per cent. of the amount of gratuity.

(4) (a) Where Form 10 has been completed and the claim or claims in the respective Forms have not been received from the beneficiary or beneficiaries, the Head of Office shall forward Form 10 and the documents referred to in sub- rule (1) to the Accounts Officer without the claim or claims.

(b) As soon as the claim or claims are received by Head of Office, they shall immediately be forwarded to the Accounts Officer.

(5) (a) Where Form 10 has been completed and the Government dues to be recovered from death gratuity have not been assessed, the Head of Office shall forward Form 10 and the documents referred to in sub-rule (1) to the Accounts Officer leaving unfilled item 9 of Part I of the said Form.

(b) As soon as the Head of Office assessed Government dues to be recovered from death gratuity, they shall immediately be forwarded to the Accounts Officer with the request that item 9 of Part I of Form 10 may be filled by the Accounts Officer.

52. Sanction, drawal and disbursement of provisional death gratuity. – (1) After the documents referred to in rule 51 have been sent to the Accounts Officer concerned, the Head of Office shall draw hundred per cent. of the gratuity as determined in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter and for this purpose the Head of Office shall adopt the following procedure, namely :-

(a) he shall issue a sanction letter in favour of claimant or claimants endorsing a copy thereof to the Accounts Officer concerned indicating the amount of hundred per cent. of the gratuity as determined ;

(b) he shall indicate in the sanction letter the amount recoverable out of the gratuity under sub-rule (3) of rule 51 ;

(c) after issue of the sanction letter he shall draw by preferring a bill to Pay and Accounts Officer for the amount of hundred per cent. of the gratuity after deducting therefrom the dues mentioned in clause (b).

(2) The Head of Office shall disburse the gratuity immediately after the same have been drawn under sub-rule (1).

(3) The Head of Office shall inform the Accounts Officer as soon as the gratuity has been paid to the claimant or claimants.

53. Authorisation of balance of the death gratuity by the Accounts Officer.– (1) On receipt of the documents referred to in sub-rule (1) of rule 51 , the Accounts Officer shall, within a period of one months from the date of receipt of the documents apply the requisite checks and complete Section I of Part II of Form 10 and assess the amount of gratuity.

(2) (a) The Accounts Officer shall determine the amount of the balance of the gratuity after adjusting the amount, if any, outstanding against the deceased Government servant.

(b) The Accounts Officer shall intimate to the Head of the Office, the amount of the balance of the gratuity determined under clause (a) with the remarks that the amount of the balance of the gratuity may be drawn and disbursed by the Head of Office to the person or persons to whom the provisional gratuity has been paid.

(c) The amount of gratuity withheld under clause (b) of sub-rule (1) of rule 54 shall be adjusted by the Head of Office against the outstanding licence-fee mentioned in clause (viii) of sub-rule (1) of rule 54 and the balance, if any, refunded to the person or persons to whom gratuity has been paid.

(d) The amount of the balance of the gratuity may be, drawn by preferring a bill to Pay and Accounts Officer and disbursed by the Head of Office to the person or persons to whom the provisional gratuity has been paid. (3) (a) If the amount of gratuity disbursed by the Head of Office proves to be larger than the amount finally assessed by the Accounts Officer the beneficiary shall not be required to refund the excess.

(b) The Head of Office shall ensure that chances of disbursing the amount of gratuity in excess of the amount actually admissible are minimised and the official or officials responsible for the excess payment shall be accountable for the overpayment.

54. Adjustment of Government dues.– (1) Dues pertaining to Government accommodation – (i) Where on the date of death the Government servant was allottee of Government accommodation, the Head of Office on receipt of intimation regarding the death of the Government servant shall within seven days of the receipt of such intimation, write to the Directorate of Estates for the issue of `No demand certificate’ so that authorisation of death gratuity is not delayed and while addressing the Directorate of Estates for the issue of no demand certificate, the Head of Office shall also submit the following information in duplicate (one copy marked to the Rent Wing and the second to the Allotment Wing), namely :-

(a) name of the deceased Government servant with designation;

(b) particulars of the accommodation (quarter No., type and locality);

(c) date of death of Government servant;

(d) whether the Government servant was on leave at the time of his death and, if so, the period and nature of leave;

(e) whether the Government servant was enjoying rent-free accommodation;

(f) the period up to which licence fee had been recovered from the pay and allowances of the deceased Government servant and the monthly rate of recovery and particulars of the pay bill under which last recovery was made;

(g) if the licence fee had not been recovered up to the date of death and the family intends to retain Government accommodation for the permissible period thereafter, details of the, –

(A) period for which licence fee still remains to be recovered;

(B) the amount of licence fee in respect of the period in (A) to be determined on the basis of the standard rent bill;

(C) the amount of licence fee for the retention of Government accommodation by the family of the deceased Government servant for the concessional period of four months beyond the date of death of the Government servant to be determined on the basis of standard bill;

(D) the amount of licence fee mentioned in (B) and (C) proposed to be recovered out of the death gratuity;

(E) details of any previous reference from the Directorate of Estates having bearing on the recovery of licence fee outstanding against the allottee and action taken thereon.

(ii) The Head of Office shall recover from the death gratuity the amount of licence fee as intimated to the Directorate of Estates under clause (i).

(iii) The recovery of licence fee for the occupation of Government accommodation beyond a period of four months shall be the responsibility of the Directorate of Estates.

(iv) The Directorate of Estates shall scrutinise their records with a view to determine if licence fee other than the licence fee referred to in clause (i) was outstanding against deceased Government servant and if any recovery is found, the amount and the period or periods to which such recovery or recoveries relate shall be communicated to the Head of Office within a period of two months of the receipt of intimation regarding the death of the Government servant under clause (i).

(v) After receipt of information under clause (iv), the Head of Office shall withhold amount as intimated by the Directorate of Estate or ten per cent. of the death gratuity, in case no specified amount is intimated by Directorate of Estates.

(vi) Where no intimation is received by the Head of Office within the period specified under clause (iv) regarding recovery of licence fee, it shall be presumed that nothing was recoverable from the deceased Government servant and the amount of gratuity withheld shall be paid to the person or persons to whom the amount of death gratuity was paid.

(vii) Where the Head of Office has received intimation from the Directorate of Estates under clause (iv) regarding licence fee outstanding against the deceased Government servant, the Head of Office shall verify from the acquittance rolls if the outstanding amount of licence fee was recovered from the pay and allowances of the deceased Government servant and if as a result of verification, it is found that the amount of licence fee shown as outstanding by the Directorate of Estates, had already been recovered, the Head of Office shall draw the attention of the Directorate of Estates to the pay bills under which the necessary recovery of the licence fee was made and subject to the provisions of sub-rule (2) take steps to pay the amount of the gratuity withheld under clause (v) to the person or persons to whom the death gratuity was paid.

(viii) Where the outstanding amount of licence fee was not recovered from the pay and allowances of the deceased Government servant, the outstanding amount shall be adjusted against the amount of the gratuity withheld under clause (v) and the balance, if any, repaid to the person or persons to whom the amount of death gratuity was paid.

(2) Dues other than those referred to in sub-rule (1) – The Head of Office shall, within one month of the receipt of intimation regarding death of a Government servant take steps to ascertain if any dues as referred to in rule 47 excluding the dues pertaining to the allotment of Government accommodation were recoverable from the deceased Government servant and such ascertainable dues shall be recovered from the amount of death gratuity becoming payable to the family of the deceased Government servant. 55. Payment of death gratuity when a Government servant dies while on deputation.- (1) In the case of a Government servant who dies while on deputation to another Central Government Department, action to authorise death gratuity in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter shall be taken by the Head of Office of the borrowing Department.

(2) In the case of a Government servant who dies while on deputation to a State Government or while on foreign service, action to authorise the payments of death gratuity in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter shall be taken by the Head of Office or the cadre authority which sanctioned the deputation of the Government servant to the State Government or to the foreign service.