Point of Law: Section 2(b) defines date of appointment in relation to any employee to mean date on which he joined service of Panchayat.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. M Islam, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr. S Dutta, learned counsel for the respondents in the P&RD Department, Government of Assam, Mr. JK Parajuli, learned counsel for the respondents No. 2 and 5 being the authorities in the Pension and Public Grievance Department and Mr. B Gogoi, learned counsel for the respondents in the Finance Department.

2. The petitioner was appointed as a Gaon Panhayat Secretary on 08.10.1993 temporarily on muster roll basis at a fixed remuneration of Rs. 900/-per month. The service book of the petitioner indicates that he continued to remain in service and ultimately retired on 03.07.2021. In course of his service, the petitioner was subjected to provincialisation of the service under the Assam Panchayat Employees Provincialisation, Act 1999 (in short Act of 1999).

3. As per section 3 of the Act of 1999, all employees of the Panchayats under the State Government shall be deemed to have been provincialised on and from the appointed date. Section 2(a) of the Act of 1999 defines appointed date to mean the date on which the Act came into force i.e. 01.10.1991. Section 2(b) defines date the date of appointment in relation to any employee to mean the date on which he joined the service of the Panchayat.

4. Having interpreted the appointed date and date of appointment, the Division Bench of this Court in its judgment dated 24.03.2010 in WA 145/2009 in paragraph 9 thereof had provided as extracted:-

“We are, therefore, of the considered view that the benefit of the provisions of the Act including those for pension and other retirement dues would be available to the provincialized employees in service on and after 01.10.19 91 on the basis of the length of their service reckoned from the date(s) of their initial appointments.”

5. A reading of the afore-extracted provision of the judgment of the Division Bench dated 24.03.2010, makes it discernible that it had been declared by the Division Bench that the provision of the Act of 1999 including those for pension and other retirement dues would be available to the provincialised employees in service on or after 01.10.1991 on the basis of the length of their service reckoned from the date of their initial appointment, meaning thereby the date of appointment defined in Section 2(b) or in other words, the date on which they had joined the service of the Panchayat.

6. In the instant case admittedly the petitioner in whatever manner he may have been initially appointed had joined the service of the Panchayat on 08.10.1993. Therefore, his length of service as per the provisions of the judgment of the Division Bench dated 24.03.2010 would be from 08.10.199 till the date of his retirement on attaining the age of superannuation which is 03.07.2021.

7. A stand has been taken by the Finance Department that the petitioner would not be entitled to pension in view of the New Defined Contribution Pension Scheme, inasmuch as, the petitioner was regularized in service after 01.02.2005.

8. The said contention that the petitioner would not be entitled for pension in view of the provisions of the New Defined Contribution Pension Scheme would not be applicable in the present case inasmuch as, there is a judicial conclusion being arrived at in the judgment and order dated 24.03.2010 in WA 145/2009 that the pension of the provincialised Panchayat employees would be reckoned from the date of appointment i.e. the initial date of joining services under the Panchayat for the purpose of pensionery benefits. Therefore, although the order of provincialisation may be after 01.02.2005, but the entire service from the date of appointment in the Panchayats would consist of the qualifying period for the purpose of pension. We have also taken note of that the New Defined Contribution Pension Scheme was notified by the notification dated 06.10.2009 whereas the judgment of the Court is dated 24.03.2010, meaning thereby that the provision in the order of the Division Bench that the p