All absorbed employees are entitled to pension from the date of absorption, while service rendered prior to that is not counted towards qualifying service.

JUDGMENT :

Vikram Nath, J.

1. Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.

2. The present appeals, except the two mentioned in paragraph 3 hereafter, assail the correctness of the judgment and order dated 22.08.2019 passed by the Full Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in a bunch of Writ Appeals whereby it answered the two questions referred to it and held that the judgment of the Division Bench in the Writ Appeal No.334 of 2015, holding that the employees of the Society were entitled to pension, did not lay down the correct law and further that the employees were not entitled to the benefit of pension as claimed by them but would be governed by the terms of absorption which provided that pension and gratuity would be admissible as per the rules and regulations of the Society. These appeals further assail the consequential orders passed by the Division Bench disposing off Writ Appeals in the light of the judgment of the Full Bench dated 22.08.2019.

3. The following two appeals that arise out of SLP(C) No.23286/2019 and SLP(C) No.3805/2021 arise from separate orders passed in contempt proceedings whereby the contempt proceedings were closed. In one of the contempt proceedings, it was held that the employees had been granted pension counting their service from the date of absorption in the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board,¹[MPSEB], whereas in the other contempt proceedings, the proceedings were dropped in view of the judgment of the Full Bench dated 22.08.2019 referred to above.

4. The only issue which is relevant for adjudication in these appeals is with regard to admissibility of pension to the employees of the Societies who were absorbed with the MPSEB and if the answer to the same is yes, then what would be the length of service to be counted i.e. whether the service rendered in the Society would also be counted for determining the qualifying period for calculation of pension or only the service rendered after absorption in the MPSEB would be counted.

5. In the State of Madhya Pradesh, large number of Co-operative Societies were registered which were involved in the work of distribution of electricity in different areas. At some stage the financial health of the Societies became poor and they were unable to manage and control their affairs, as such a policy decision was taken in 1995 to merge them with the MPSEB subject to terms and conditions being set out in all respects. In particular, with respect to the employees of the Societies both regular and daily wagers.

6. The policy decision of 1995 ultimately fructified in the year 2002 when the Societies were dissolved and the merger took place with effect from 15.03.2002 notified subsequently vide order of MPSEB dated 18.05.2004 and 14.12.2004. Further, the terms and conditions for absorption were formulated and declared by the MPSEB in its order dated 05.06.2004, which are reproduced hereunder:

“1. The regular employees of the above societies shall be taken over on the same terms and conditions as existing in the Society except that no deputation allowance shall be pai