The date of initiation of the recruitment process is crucial in determining the coverage of pension schemes for employees, as emphasized by relevant case laws and applied in this judgment.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Shri M. Chanda, learned counsel for the petitioners and Shri S. Tapin, learned Senior Government Advocate, Arunachal Pradesh.

2. 95 numbers of petitioners have joined together in this writ petition with amongst others, the principal grievance relating to their pension.

3. The petitioners are working as Head Warden/ Jail Warden in the Jail Department which is under the Inspector General of Prisons of the State of Arunachal Pradesh.

4. The grievance of the petitioners, as indicated above, is treating them to be covered by the New Pension Scheme (for short, ‘NPS’). To be more particular, the grievance is against a communication, dated 22.07.2021 issued by the authorities, by which, it has been laid down that employees who were appointed on or after 01.01.2008 would be covered by the NPS scheme.

5. The case of the petitioners is that the recruitment process through which they were inducted in the services was pursuant to an advertisement, dated 19.03.2007. The petitioners had participated in the recruitment process which had consisted of various segments including physical fitness and interview and accordingly, a merit list was published on 14.12.2007 by notifying 100 numbers of selected candidates for the post of Jail Warden and in that list, the names of the petitioners were included. Consequently, the petitioners were appointed on 15.02.2008 and they were issued offer letter on 15.02.2008 subsequently to which they were formally appointed. The Finance Department however had issued a notification dated 17.11.2007 by which, the new pension scheme was introduced w.e.f. 01.01.2008. It is stipulated that it would be applicable to all new entrants to the State services who were appointed on or after 01.01.2008.

6. It is the case of the petitioners that their selection for appointment was prior to 01.01.2008 which is the cut-off date as per the notification and therefore, they are entitled to the benefit of GPF and should be covered by the old pension scheme under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 in terms of the O.M. dated 17.02.2020 issued by the Department of Pension, Government of India.

7. Shri Chanda, learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that the cut-off date is to be examined from the point of view of the date when the vacancy which was existing was sought to be filled up. He submits that there is no manner of doubt that the recruitment process was initiated on 19.03.2007 which is much prior to the cut-off date of 01.01.2008. He submits that even the select list was dated 14.12.2007 and the appointment of the petitioners were incidentally made after 01.01.2008 which should not deprive them of their entitlement to be placed and governed by the old pension scheme.

8. The learned counsel for the petitioners have relied upon a number of judgment in this regard including a judgment dated 04.02.2022 of the Division Bench of this Court in WP (C) 7369/2021 (Sanjay Kumar and Another vs. Union of India & Others). The Hon’ble Division Bench vide the judgment dated 04.02.2022 which was dealing with a similar issue which was in connection from an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal had held that it is the date on which the recruitment process was initiated which would be crucial to determine as to under which scheme the appointees would be covered.

10. For ready reference, the observation made in Paragraph Nos. 19 & 23 of the said judgment are extracted hereinbelow:-

“19…In the several judgments referred to by the petitioners of the Delhi High Court as well as by the Uttarakhand High Court, it is seen that the consistent view of High Courts in the said matters is that where the process of recruitment have been initiated in the year, 2003 merely because the appointment orders were issued subsequently in the year, 2004 or later, such delay not being attributable to the appointees or the recruitees, the benefit of the Old Pension Scheme which was replaced by the New Pension Scheme from 01.01.2004 cannot be denie