Death cum Retirement Benefit Scheme

CHAPTER VII
Death Gratuity and Family Pension
21. Death gratuity—When the employee who has completed five years’ qualifying service dies while in service, a death gratuity shall be paid to the nominee or nominees of the deceased employee or to the surviving members of his family as defined in paragraphs 5S(1) of Chapter II in equal shares, if there be no nominee, subject to a minimum of 12 times of the amount reckonable for pension and a maximum of 16 & 1/2 times of the amount reckonable for pension.
The death gratuity will be admissible at the rate of 1/4 th of the emoluments last drawn for each six monthly period of service.
When an employee who has become eligible for pension and retiring gratuity under paragraph 20 dies within five years from the date of retirement and the same actually received or payable to the members of his/her family on account of retiring gratuity, is less than the amount that would have been admissible as death gratuity under paragraph 21, had he died on the date of retirement, this balance shall be paid as gratuity to the person on whom the right to received the gratuity is conformed under paragraph 22 or if there is no such person to the members of his family.
22. Nomination—
(1) Any employee to whom this scheme applies may, provided he has completed five years’ qualifying service, make a nomination in writing in the prescribed form shown in Appendix II conferring on one or more persons the right to receive the death gratuity that may be sanctioned under paragraph 21 and also the gratuity that may be payable under the same paragraph.
Provided that if, at the time of making nomination the employee has a family, the nomination shall not be in favour of any person or persons other than the members of his family.
(2) If an employee nominates more than one persons under sub-paragraph (1), he shall specify in the nomination the amount of share payable to each of the nominees in such manner as to cover the whole amount of the gratuity.
(3) An employee may provide in a nomination—
(a) That in respect of any specified nominee, in the event of his/her predeceasing the employee, the right conferred upon that nominee shall pass to such other member of the employee’s family as may be specified in the nomination ; and
(b) That the nomination shall become invalid in the event of the happening of a contingency specified therein.
(4) The nomination made by an employee who has no family shall become invalid on his subsequently acquiring a family.
(5) Every nomination shall be in such one of the Forms A to D in Appendix-II as may be approved in the circumstances of the case.
(6) An employee may at any time cancel a nomination by sending a notice in writing and the employee shall along with such notice send a fresh nomination made in accordance with this Scheme.
(7) Immediately on the death of a nominee in respect of whom no special provision has been made in the nomination under clause (a) of sub-paragraph (3) or on the occurrence of any event by reason of which the nomination becomes invalid in pursuance of clause (b) of that sub paragraph (4), the employee shall send a notice in writing formally cancelling the nomination, together with a fresh nomination made in accordance with this paragraph.
(8) Every nomination made, and every notice of cancellation given, by an employee under this paragraph shall be sent, to the appointing authority or Head of the Institution/Organisation as the case may be who shall ; immediately on receipt a nomination, countersign in indicating the date of receipt and get the same pasted in the Service Book.
(9) Every nomination made, and every notice of cancellation given by an employee, shall, to the extent that it is valid, take effect on the date on which it is received by the authority mentioned in Sub-paragraph (8).
23. Family Pension—
(1) Family pension is admissible to the members of the family of an employee who dies while in service after rendering at least one year’s service.
(2) The benefit shall also be admissible in case of death of an employee after retirement if at the time of death he was in receipt of a compensation, invalid, retiring or superannuation pension or gratuity.
24. Rate of family pension—Family pension at the following rates will/be admissible to the members of the family of an employee.

25. Family pension at enhanced rate—
(a) In the event of death of an employee while in service, the rate of family pension will be 50% of the pay last drawn subject to a maximum of twice the family pension ordinary admissible in the rates shown above, provided the employee concerned has put in not less than 7 years’ continuous service prior to his death. The family pension at enhanced rate is payable for a period of 7 years’ from the date following the date of death or till the date on which the employee concerned would have attained the age of 65 years had be survived, whichever period is less.
(b) In the event of death after retirement the family pension at enhanced rate shall be payable up to the date on which the deceased employee concerned would have attained the age of 65 years had he survived or for 7 years, whichever period is less; but in no case the amount of enhanced family pension shall exceed the pension sanctioned to the employee concerned at the time or retirement. However, in cases when the amount of normal family pension exceeds the amount of pension sanctioned at the time of retirement, the enhanced family pension shall not be less than the amount of normal family pension. The pension sanctioned at the time of retirement shall be the pension inclusive of the part of pension which the retired employee may have commuted before death.
After the period for payment of family pension at enhanced rate is over, family pension at normal rate will commence.
Note: The method of determining the amount of family pension payable under the above principle should be calculated in the following manner.
Pension admissible should first be calculated by applying the minimum and maximum limits and doubled. The resultant amount or 50% of the pay last drawn, whichever is less, is the amount of family pension admissible under this Schemes;
26. Period during which family pension is admissible.
Subject to the following conditions, the family pension shall be admissible—
(a) in the case of widow/widower up to the date of death or re-marriage, whichever is earlier;
(b) in the case of minor son, until he attains the age of 18 years ;
(c) in the case of unmarried daughter, until she attains the age of 21 years or marriage whichever is earlier;
(d) in the case dependent parents up to the date of their death or re-marriage, whichever is earlier.
Note: Where an employee is survived by more than one widow, the family pension shall be paid to them in equal shares. On the death of widow, her share of the pension shall become payable to her eligible minor children. If at the time of her death a widow leaves no eligible minor child, the payment of her share of the pension shall cease.
27. Date of effect of Family Pension—A family pension shall take effect from the day following the death of an employee.
28. Pension payable to one member of the family—
Subject to the provision contained in the note under paragraph 26, the pension awarded under this Scheme shall not be payable to more than one member of the employee’s family at the same time. It shall first be admissible to the widow(s)/widower and then to the first eldest minor son, thereafter next minor sons according to seniority and when there will be no minor son, eldest minor daughter and so on and thereafter to mother and lastly to father. Payments to minor will be made through natural legal guardian.
Note: Payment of family pension will not be any bar if at the time of entitlement, the widow or widower, or unmarried daughter or son happens to be employed anywhere.

CHAPTER IX
Procedure relating to application for and sanction of pension
30. List of employees due to retire : The authorities of each Institution/ Organisation shall have a list prepared every six months, i.e. on the 1st January and the 1 st July each year of all employees who are to retire within the next 12 to 18 months of that date. A copy of every such list in the form shown in Annexure I shall be sent to the Director concerned and the Education Department, Government of West Bengal and Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance, Government of West Bengal not later than the 31 st January of the 31st July as the case may be of that year. In case of the persons retiring for reasons other than by way of superannuation, the Institutions/ Organisation’s authority shall promptly inform the Director concerned and the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance or any officer nominated by him as soon as the impending retirement becomes known to him.
31. An employee, who is eligible for pension under this Scheme, shall submit to his appointing authority a formal application for pension in the form an prescribed in Appendix-IV and other documents as mentioned in the application form and other particulars, required in Appendix-V preferable one year in advance of the date of anticipated retirement.
32. The authorities of the Institutions/Organisations, on receipt of the formal application for pension, shall immediately prepare the pension papers after due scrutiny and verification of the service claimed and the emoluments actually drawn and forward the same along with the following documents to the respective Director or to the Officer(s) authorised by him in this behalf through the District authorities concerned:
(a) The Service Book duly completed and the entries duly verified and signed by the Head of the Institutions/Organisations in the case of an employee of the educational institutions including libraries; by the District Inspector of the District, in the case of the employees of District School Board and by the Director concerned or any officer authorised by him in the case of the Head of the Institution/Organisation.
(b) A certificate to be given by the appointing authority stating that the services claimed have been verified and that the average emoluments have been correctly calculated.
(c) Recommendation of the appointing authority stating whether the pension should be admitted or not.
33. The concerned Director or an officer(s) authorised by him on his behalf shall scrutinise be pension papers and forward the same to the Director of Pension, Provident Fund and Group Insurance or any officer authorised by him along with sanction is general terms in the forms as prescribed in Appendix VI at least three months before the date of retirement of the employee concerned for issue of pension payment order.
34. Where pension papers are detained for some reasons, provisional pension at the rate or 100 per cent of pension calculated on the basis of available information and provisional gratuity, after withholding of 10 per cent or Rs. 1,000/- of the gratuity, whichever is less, should be sanctioned immediately to the retiring employee of Non-Govt./Aided/Sponsored Institutions/Organisation by the Director concerned or any officer authorised by him, subject to the furnishing a written undertaking by the pensioner concerned in the enclosed form. In no case the provisional pension will continue beyond twelve months. The issue of last pay certificate should not be insisted upon before the payment of provisional pension. But the amount of gratuity withheld will be released only after production of last pay certificate.
While fowarding the pension papers, a copy of the order sanctioning the payment of provisional pension (including gratuity) shall be sent to the Director of Pension, Provident fund and Group Insurance. Government of West Bengal, along with the pension papers.
Such provisional pension (including gratuity) shall be subject to adjustment against the amount of final pension (including gratuity/relief or by short payment of pension). All outstanding dues shall be adjusted in the same manner as above.
35. The pension sanctioning authority will sanction provisional pension and gratuity and issue an order. The same will be drawn and disbursed by the Head of the Institution/Organisation or by the Drawing and Disbursing Officer, if there is any.

CHAPTER XI
45. In respect of matters for which provisions has not been made in this Scheme, the relevant provisions in the West Bengal Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefit) Rules, 1971 (amended form time to time) shall apply mutatis mutandis subject to the approval of the State Government.