IMPORTANT POINT
A bona fide mistake does not confer any right to any party and it can be corrected.

JUDGMENT

Lokeshwar Singh Panta, J. —

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and order dated 25th November, 2004 passed by the High Court of Calcutta in MAT No. 171 of 2002 whereby and whereunder the order of the learned Single Judge of the High Court dated 15th October, 2001 recorded on Writ Petition No. 6935(W) of 1999 was affirmed and the appellants herein were directed to give retiral benefits to all the writ petitioners/respondents 1 to 8-retirees in accordance with the Central Government Pension Scheme as opted by them in the year 1989 within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of the order.

3. Briefly stated, the facts of the case are as follows :-

The respondents 1 to 8-retirees herein were employees of the Overseas Communication Service (OCS), the Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India. The OCS was converted into a Government Company, namely, ‘Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited’ (VSNL) on 1st April, 1986.

4. By an Office Memorandum No. 4(8)/85-P & PW dated 13th January, 1986, the Government of India settled the pensionary terms of Government employees who were transferred to an Autonomous Body/Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) on conversion of a Central Government Department/Office into an Autonomous Body or PSU. The relevant terms of the said Circular reads as under :-

(a) The permanent Government Servants shall have an option to retain pensionary benefits available to them under Government Rules or be governed by the Rules of the Public Sector Undertaking/Autonomous Body.

(b) The Government Servants who opt to be governed by the pensionary benefits available under the Government shall at the time of their retirement, be entitled to pension etc. in accordance with the Central Government Rules in force at that time.

5. The Government of India, Ministry of Communication, Sanchar Bhawan, vide another O.M. bearing No. G 25015/ 1/86-00 dated 19.3.1986 decided to set up a wholly Government owned Public Sector Corporation known as VSNL which was made operational from 1st April, 1986. This Circular reiterated that the pension and other benefits to the employees on their absorption in the Corporation will be determined in accordance with the Department of Pension & Pension Welfare, O.M. No. 4(8)-85, P & PW dated 13.1.1986 and as amended from time to time. Later on, O.M. dated 13.1.1986 was amended by O.M. No. 4/18/87-P & PW (D), dated 5.7.1989, which provided inter alia that the employees will have an option to retain Government pay scale till their promotion or retirement (whichever is earlier) or to come over to the service conditions of PSUs. A Circular No. HQ/01-01/89-PEM/dated 11.12.1989 was issued by VSNL with a proposal to absorb individual employees in regular service with effect from 1.1.1990 and the employee concerned had to exercise his/her option of getting himself/herself absorbed in regular service of VSNL and if the concerned employee did not opt for absorption, his or her name will be transferred to the Surplus Staff Cell for deployment against possible vacancies in other Government offices. The terms and conditions of permanent absorption of the OCS staff contained in separate formats were supplied to the employees for their information and necessary action.

6. The Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension (Department of Pension and Pension Welfare) later on vide O.M. bearing No. 4/18/87-P & PW (D) dated 7.2.1990 issued clarification in the following terms :-

(i) that where the employees had opted to retain pensionary benefits under the Central Government Rules, the emoluments drawn under the PSU shall be treated as emoluments for the purpose of Rule 33 of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 and accordingly any emoluments drawn by the transferred employee will be taken into account for the purpose of calculation of average emoluments as per clarification given in Note 10 below Rule 33 of th