The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the state counsel of Punjab to file an affidavit detailing the schemes and policies framed, as well as the announcements made by the state government, for providing financial assistance and other welfare benefits to its citizens.Justice Sandeep Moudgil passed the order on a petition filed by a woman, Baljinder Kaur, widow of an employee whose request for family pension and compassionate appointment for her son was rejected by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Ropar, vide order dated August 7, 2026.Justice Moudgil directed that the affidavit shall specifically disclose the measures undertaken by the state government to provide assistance in various forms, including free electricity, free water facilities, free transportation and monthly financial assistance, with a view to alleviating hardship and facilitating the livelihood of citizens and making their lives somewhat easier, in furtherance of the state’s obligations as a welfare state. The hearing of the case has been adjourned to October 7, 2026.Baljinder Kaur, a resident of a village in Kurali, in a petition filed through advocate HS Arora, said that her late husband, Tara Singh, was working as a temporary chowkidar and his services were dispensed with illegally by Excise and Taxation Department in 1996. He was subsequently reinstated on February 22, 2018, on the orders of the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour court with continuity of service and with 50 per cent back wages.During the out-of-service period of Tara Singh, his other colleagues, including five temporary chowkidars, were regularized.Thus, the case of Tara Singh is required to be considered for granting him regularisation benefit with effect from the date the five temporary chowkidars were regularised. The previous period of service as temporary chowkidar is required to be treated as a qualifying period for the purpose of computation of pension, and that being so, she should be granted family pension under the Old Pension Scheme.She further prayed that by treating late Tara Singh as having been regularised in service as temporary chowkidar, her son be permitted to submit an application for consideration of his case for grant of compassionate appointment on account of the death of Tara Singh while in service. She said, however, that her demand notice was rejected by the Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Ropar, arbitrarily and illegally.