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2023 Supreme(SC) 805
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
S. RAVINDRA BHAT, ARAVIND KUMAR, JJ.
State of Himachal Pradesh and Another – Appellants
Versus
Sheela Devi – Respondent
Civil Appeal No. 5148 of 2023, SLP (Civil) No. 10399 of 2020, SLP (C) Nos. 8012-8013, 12999, 13001, 13004, 13413, 13439, 13683, 13699 of 2021
Decided On : 07-08-2023
Advocate Appeared:
For the Petitioners: Abhinav Mukerji, Varinder Kumar Sharma, Anup Rattan, Varinder Kumar Sharma, Ravi Bakshi.
For the Respondents: Viplav Sharma, Ajay Singh, Amit Kumar, Tamanna Malik, M.C. Dhingra, Ashwani Kumar Gupta, Gaurav Dhingra, Dipanker Pokhriyal, A.K. Singh, Shobha Gupta, Raghvendra Shukla, Bina Madhavan, S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Tushar Singh, Sohil Shaik, Narayana Kumar Relangi.
IMPORTANT POINT
Pension – It is only for the purposes of pension that past service as a contractual employee is to be taken into account.
Headnote:
Central Civil Services Pension Rules, 1972 – Rules 2 and 17 – Pension – Contractual employees – It is only for the purposes of pension that past service as a contractual employee is to be taken into account – State shall take immediate steps to indicate mode and manner of exercising option by all employees concerned (who had been regularized after spells of contractual employment) regardless of dates on which they were engaged i.e. prior to year 2003 or subsequently, within a time frame, of within eight weeks from today – After receiving options within time indicated in notice, concerned employee(s) who exercise relevant options should be notified about amounts they would have to remit in case any amount towards contribution is required – Options should be processed and completed within eight weeks from last date of receiving options – Time limit for payment too should be indicated and entire process should be completed within four months and all orders fixing pensions or family pension as the case may be, shall be issued. (Paras 9 and 11)
Facts of the case:
Appellant-State is before this Court complaining that the judgment of Himachal Pradesh High Court, granting relief to respondent-employees is erroneous.
High Court by impugned judgment allowed the writ petitions and directed State to extend pensionary benefits on the basis of the benefit of including contractual service claimed by them on the reasoning that upon their regularization, the period of contractual employment was also reckonable for the purposes of future benefits including – whereby applicable, pension.
Findings of Court:
So far as the other arguments with respect to the voluntariness when the employees enters into contractual services is concerned, this Court is unpersuaded by the submission because those terms were applicable as long as the employees remained on contract. However, his or her status ceased upon regularization.
Result : Special Leave Petitions dismissed as withdrawn.
ORDER :
SLP (CIVIL) NO. 10399/2020 (and connected petitions referred to above)
1. Leave granted. With consent of counsel, the appeals were heard.
2. The appellant (hereinafter “State”) is before this Court complaining that the judgment of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, granting relief to the respondents (hereby referred to as ‘employees’) is erroneous.
3. The respondents (or their legal representatives - as is the case in some instances) before this Court were employed on contract basis by the State in its Education and in the Ayurvedic Department. Their services as contractual employees were regularized at different points in time.
4. Many of these contractual employees were engaged prior to the introduction of the Rules framed in 2004 (hereinafter referred to as “2004 Pension scheme”) whereby entitlement of pension per se was abolished. On different dates thereafter, the employees were regularized. In some instances, they were employed even after the 2004 Pension Scheme came into force. Their claim was that upon regularization, they were entitled to reckon the period of contractual employment, for the purposes of pension. The State rejected this contention which led them to approach the High Court. The High Court by the impugned judgment allowed the writ petitions and directed the State to extend pensionary benefits on the basis of the benefit of including contractual service claimed by them on the reasoning that upon their regularization, the period of contractual employment was also reckonable for the purposes of future benefits including - whereby applicable, pension.
5. Complaining that of the error, the State has approached this court. During the pendency of these proceedings, the State introduced, what is now termed as a New Pension Scheme (hereby referred to as “NPS”) on 04.05.2023.
6. The NPS Scheme was notified in the Official Gazette on 04.05.2023 and was embodied in rules proviso under Article 309 of the constitution of India. The relevant portion of the NPS reads as follows:
“(vii) Employees, who were covered under the National Pension System (NPS) and have already retired/died, between the period 15.05.2003 to 31.03.2003 and who fulfil the eligibility criteria under the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, such retired employee and eligible family member of deceased employee, shall be entitled to pension from prospective date i.e. with effect from 01.04.2023, on exercising an option for the same on the prescribed format at Annexure-II and submission of an undertaking at Annexure-III, subject to deposit of the Government contribution and dividend/return, till the date of withdrawal, to the State Government. The amount of Government contribution and dividend/return shall be deposited under the Receipt Head “0071-Contribution & Recoveries towards pension and other retirement benefit, 01-Civil, 101-subscriptions and Contributions, 03-Accumulated Pension Wealth in respect of National Pension System Subscribers and 04-Accumulated dividend on Government Contribution of National Pension System employees converted into Old Pension Scheme.”
(viii) Employees’ own contribution alongwith dividend/return earned thereon, shall be retained by such employees who have opted for the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972.
(ix) The employees covered under National Pension System and opting for the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 i.e. Old Pension Scheme, shall also furnish an undertaking for adjustment of the Government contribution and dividend earned thereon, from the gratuity/leave encashment/GIS, if they fail to deposit such amount to the Government Account.
(x) If an employee, who has opted for Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 i.e. Old Pension Scheme, fails to deposit Government contribution and dividend earned thereon, to the Government Account, and said amount is also not possible to be adjusted completely against the payment of gratuity/leave encashment/GIS, then such an employee shall not be
