The High Court has given an important decision in the matter of counting contract service for pension. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sabina and Justice Satyen Vaidya ordered the contract service to be counted for the old pension.
The Bench clarified that the service eligibility of an employee starts from the date he joins the charge whether the appointment is temporary or permanent.
The contract service is liable to be counted for the purpose of applicability of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972. The court gave this decision while accepting the petition of Dr. Umesh Kumar.
The court quashed the government’s decision of October 18, 2021, under which it was decided not to give pension benefits to the petitioner.
The petitioner contended before the court that he was appointed as a doctor on January 31, 1997 on a contract basis. His services were regularized in the year 2007.
It was argued that the government did not regularize his services for ten years while giving him all the service allowances of a permanent employee.
In the year 2010, the Department ordered the petitioner and the parallel employees to become participants of the New Pension Scheme (Contributory Pension Scheme).
The petitioner and others challenged this decision before the High Court. By passing an interim order, the court had stayed these orders and later on November 30, 2010, while giving the verdict, ordered them to be given the benefit of old pension.
The petitioner had retired on 31st December 2020. Thereafter, the department refused to give him the benefit of old pension.
After perusing the record related to the case, the court said in its decision that the petitioner is entitled to old pension. The court has ordered the department to give all the service benefits within six weeks.