Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 31: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has directed Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Jammu (SKUAST-Jammu) to immediately release the pension commutation benefits to the widow of a professor who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal dismissed SKUAST’s appeal against a Single Bench judgment that had ordered the University to process the pension of Promila Kachroo, widow of late Prof D Vinod Kumar Wali, former Head, Fruit Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Chatha.
The court noted that Prof Wali had applied for pension commutation before his retirement in March 2020 but could not complete the formalities due to the nationwide lockdown. He later succumbed to COVID-19 in May 2020.
Observing that the university “cannot take refuge under technicalities,” the Bench held that procedural formalities must yield to justice in such humanitarian cases and dismissed SKUAST’s appeal as “devoid of merit.”
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