17th Pension Adalat Clears 756 of 897 Old Grievances

The 17th All India Pension Adalat was held in New Delhi on 5 October 2026 and settled most of the cases placed before it. Of the 897 long-pending grievances listed for the sitting, 756 were resolved, which works out to a redressal rate of 84.2 per cent. The remaining files are being pursued in the days ahead.

Who ran the sitting

The Adalat was chaired by Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space. It was organised by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare (DoPPW) at the T. N. Chaturvedi Memorial Hall of the Indian Institute of Public Administration. Cases were placed before the minister by the Joint Secretary (Pension), so each complaint could be examined in the open with the ministry or department concerned present.

Who the cases belonged to

The grievances taken up this time were those of family pensioners and super-senior pensioners, the two groups least able to chase paperwork on their own. Two of the day's cases show the sums involved. In the first, the widow of a soldier who made the supreme sacrifice in 1973 had been drawing a Liberalised Family Pension lower than her entitlement; her son joined by video conference from Chandigarh to present the case, and arrears of Rs 2.02 crore were released. In the second, a super-senior family pensioner received benefits of more than Rs 72 lakh.

What was released

Two publications were brought out at the sitting: a set of flyers on success stories from the 16th Pension Adalat, and an e-booklet titled Bringing Ease in the Life of Family Pensioners. The minister credited the Prime Minister with introducing the idea of the Panchayat Adalat in 2017, from which the pension sittings draw their format.

The digital push

Dr Jitendra Singh said pension services are moving towards digital identity and face-recognition based verification, and that the Digital Life Certificate drive needs sustained awareness campaigns so that elderly pensioners can submit their certificates without travelling. He added that technology should be used not only to deliver services but to spot gaps in pension administration, and that reforms must reach the last mile to count as reform at all. The Adalat is part of the standing machinery the DoPPW has built for quick and accessible redressal of pensioners' complaints.