Pending Enquiry Awards to Commissioned Officers and their dependents – Similar to the provision of ‘provisional family pension’ in civil side: Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare Order dated 24.07.2022
F. No. 1(4)/2020/D(P/P)
Government of India
Ministry of Defence
Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare
D(Pension/Policy)
Room No.222, ‘B’ Wing,
Sena Bhawan, New Delhi-110011.
Dated: 24th July, 2022
To
The Chief of the Army Staff
The Chief of the Naval Staff
The Chief of the Air Staff
Subject: Pending Enquiry Awards to Commissioned Officers and their dependents-reg.
Sir,
The undersigned is directed to refer to Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions OM No. 1/11/2020-P&PW(E) dated 29th July, 2020 vide which it has been decided to relax the provisions of rule 80-A of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 to the extent that if a claim for family pension in Form 14 along with death certificate and bank account details of the claimant has been received and the Head of Office is satisfied about the bonafide of that claim, he shall sanction provisional family pension immediately. The Head of Office shall not wait for forwarding of the family pension case (including Form-14, Form -18 and other relevant documents mentioned in Rule 80) to Pay & Account Office before sanctioning the provisional family pension.
2. As stated above, similar to the provision of ‘provisional family pension’ in civil side, there is a provision as ‘Pending Enquiry Award’ in Defence side. As per Section-2 of Pension Regulations for the Army (PRA), Part-II(2008), Pending Enquiry Award scheme is intended to relieve financial difficulties of Personnel Below Officer Ranks and their dependents.
3. The matter has been considered in this Ministry. It has been decided that the provisions of Section-2:Pending Enquiry Award of PRA, Part-II(2008) may also be extended mutatis mutandis to the Commissioned Officers and their dependents.
3.1. In the case of Commissioned Officers, the authority for initiating/sanctioning the ‘Pending Enquiry Award’ will be the Competent Authority in Service HQrs/Officers Records Office of the concerned Services.
4. The provisions of this letter will take effect from the date of issue of this letter. The relevant provisions of Pension Regulations for Army, Air Force and Navy will be amended in due course.
5. This issues with concurrence of Ministry of Defence (Finance/Pension) vide their UO Note No. 10(09)/2018/Fin/Pen dated 11.07.2022.
6. Hindi version will follow.
Yours faithfully,
(A K Agrawal)
Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of India
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