An amendment with retrospective operation that takes away a benefit already available to the employee under the existing rule violates the rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

JUDGMENT :

Rastogi, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Civil Appeals @ SLP(Civil) Nos. 1940-1941 of 2020 and the cognate appeals arise from the self-same common judgment dated 29th July, 2019 and 4th October, 2019 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh.

3. The facts have been noticed by this Court from Civil Appeals @ SLP(Civil) Nos.1940-1941 of 2020.

4. The appellant in the present batch of appeals, is the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Bank’), a registered cooperative society and connected Civil Appeal @ Special Leave Petition (Civil) No.12864 of 2020 has been preferred by the serving employees of the bank who also claim to be aggrieved by the selfsame impugned judgment in the proceedings. At the same time, the respondents are the original writ petitioners who are the retired employees and the service conditions of the employees are governed by the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Land Mortgage Banks Service (Common Cadre) Rules, 1978(hereinafter being referred to as the “Rules 1978”) and became members of the Bank Pension Scheme, which was introduced w.e.f. 1st April, 1989.

5. The appellant Bank is a registered cooperative society which was earlier known as “Punjab State Cooperative Land Mortgage Bank Ltd.” The principal object of the Bank is to provide long term loans to the farming community and to protect them from the clutches of money lenders. The main funding of the appellant Bank is by way of loans from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development(NABARD) as per the norms laid down. The appellant Bank has two tier structure comprising of “Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Ltd.” at Apex level(SADB) and the “Primary Agricultural Development Banks”(PADB) at the grass root level. These two banks ensure timely delivery of credit to the farmers, who are its members and directly benefitted with various schemes which provide long term and short-term loans to them.

6. Prior to 1989, the employees of the appellant Bank were covered under the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952(hereinafter being referred to as the “Act 1952”). The scheme was being duly adhered to and necessary contributions were regularly paid by employees and the employer Bank.

7. The Department of Finance, Government of Punjab, vide its letter dated 22nd September 1988, pursuant to recommendations of the Punjab Pay Commission to bring the employees serving in various Public Sector Undertakings and State aided institutions under purview of the State Pension Rules, solicited the views/comments of the concerned organisations to inter alia communicate the additional financial burden involved in each case and whether the organisation/organisations could bear the additional liability out of their own resources. These recommendations were placed before the Administrator of the Bank who vide Resolution dated 22nd June 1989 decided to implement the recommendations of the State Government and as a consequence thereof, the pension scheme of the employees and Officers in the common cadre was introduced w.e.f. 1st April, 1989.

8. Resolution No.24 passed by the Administrator of the appellant Bank dated 22nd June, 1989 is reproduced as under: