Section 95: Power of Commissions in relation to pensions

95. Power of Commissions in relation to pensions (1) Where under any law any person or authority has a discretion to— (a) decide whether or not any pensions benefits shall be granted; or (b) withhold, reduce in amount or suspend any such benefits that have been granted, those benefits shall be granted and may not be withheld, reduced in amount or suspended unless the appropriate Commission concurs in the refusal to grant the benefits or, as the case may be, in the decision to withhold them, reduce them in amount or suspend them. (2) Where the amount of any pensions benefits that may be granted to any person is not fixed by law, the amount of the benefits to be granted to him shall be the greatest amount for which he is eligible unless the appropriate Commission concurs in his being granted benefits of a smaller amount. CON – 69 [Issue 1] The Constitution (3) The appropriate Commission shall not concur under subsection (1) or (2) in action taken on the ground that any person who holds or has held the office of Electoral Commissioner, Director of Public Prosecutions, Judge of the Supreme Court, Commissioner of Police, Ombudsman or Director of Audit has been guilty of misbehaviour unless he has been removed from office by reason of such misbehaviour. (4) In this section, “the appropriate Commission” means— (a) in the case of benefits for which any person may be eligible in respect of the service in the public service of a person who, immediately before he ceased to be a public officer, was subject to the disciplinary control of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission or that have been granted in respect of such service, the Judicial and Legal Service Commission; (b) in the case of benefits for which any person may be eligible in respect of the service in the public service of a person who, immediately before he ceased to be a public officer, was a member of a disciplined force, the Disciplined Forces Service Commission; and (c) in any other case, the Public Service Commission. (5) Any person who is entitled to the payment of any pensions benefits and who is ordinarily resident outside Mauritius may, within a reasonable time after he has received that payment, remit the whole of it (free from any deduction, charge or tax made or levied in respect of its remission) to any country of his choice outside Mauritius: Provided that nothing in this subsection shall be construed as preventing— (a) the attachment, by order of a Court, of any payment or part of any payment to which a person is entitled in satisfaction of the judgment of a Court or pending the determination of civil proceedings to which he is a party to the extent to which such attachment is permitted by the law with respect to pensions benefits that applies in the case of that person; or (b) the imposition of reasonable restrictions as to the manner in which any payment is to be remitted. (6) In this section, “pensions benefits” means any pensions, compensation, gratuities or other like allowances for persons in respect of their service as public officers or for the widows, children, dependants or personal representatives of such persons in respect of such service. [S. 95 amended by Act 5 of 1997.] CHAPTER IX – THE OMBUDSMAN