The High Court of Karnataka has termed as “worse than dismissal” the action of the authorities in withholding 100% pension and gratuity amount of a retired employee of Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax without establishing corruption charges against him for 13 years.“The petitioner is now 73 years old. He has not seen the light of his terminal benefits, despite his retirement 13 years ago. He is left bleeding by the impugned penalty, which is worse than dismissal from service,” the court observed while setting aside the order of withholding pension and gratuity.Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Hanumanth N. Karkun of Saptapur in Dharwad.The chargeA case was registered against the petitioner in 2011 on the charge of demanding ₹2,000 and finally accepting ₹1,500 as bribe from a complainant for issuing a service tax registration certificate. The alleged ₹1,500 was found on his table and not recovered from his personal possession. He retired from service in 2012. Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the probe from the Karnataka Lokayukta police, filed a chargesheet against him in 2013.On the other hand, the inquiry officer, in the departmental inquiry, exonerated the petitioner from the charges but the disciplinary authority rejected the report and ordered a fresh inquiry. Again the inquiry officer submitted a report indicating that there was no evidence to establish that the petitioner had failed to maintain absolute integrity.However, the disciplinary authority rejected the second inquiry report and referred the matter to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).Meanwhile, a trial court in 2015 acquitted the petitioner from the charges of corruption by holding that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the guilt of the petitioner beyond all reasonable doubt.Order of UPSCSubsequently, the UPSC in its 2023 order recommended the disciplinary authority to withhold 100% pension and the entire gratuity amount of the petitioner on a permanent basis. The petitioner’s appeal against this decision was pending adjudication before the appellate authority.The court said there is no provision in the law to withhold 100% pension while also pointing out that the gratuity of the petitioner cannot be withheld as he was not terminated from service as the law allows withholding of gratuity, completely or partly, only when service of a delinquent employee was terminated for an offence of moral turpitude.Published - February 26, 2025 09:28 pm IST