Point of Law: A Government servant, as per Rule 35, shall be granted superannuation pension on his attaining age of compulsory retirement. Such Government servant shall be paid pension based on qualifying service and based on average emoluments drawn during last ten months of his service.

JUDGMENT :

A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.

The short issue that arises for consideration in these O.P.(CAT)'s is whether a Government servant who retires on the last working day of the preceding month and whose annual increment falls due on the first of the succeeding month is entitled for sanction of annual increment for the purposes of pension and gratuity ? This being the sole issue on which the O.P.(CAT)'s have been preferred by the Union of India, we do not deem it necessary to record the factual circumstances arising in the individual cases.

2. Briefly stated, the facts that are common to all the cases are that the respondents/applicants retired from their respective establishments on attaining the age of superannuation. Their next annual increment, had they continued in service, would have accrued to them on the very next day. When their claim for reckoning the said increment along with their last drawn pay for the purposes of their retirement benefits did not yield a favourable response from the Government, they approached the Central Administrative Tribunal through the applications that were disposed by the impugned orders of the Tribunal.

3. The Tribunal essentially followed the judgment of the Madras High Court in P.Ayyamperumal v. Union of India and others - [judgment dated 15.9.2017 in W.P.(C).No.15732/2017], the Special Leave Petition [SLP] against which was dismissed by the Supreme Court, to find that the respondents were entitled to the grant of annual increment on their completion of one full year of service at the time of their retirement for the purposes of pensionary benefits. It is impugning the said finding of the Tribunal that the petitioners are before us in these O.P.(CAT)'s.

4. We have heard Sri.Manu.S., the Deputy Solicitor General of India, Sri.T.V. Vinu, the learned Central Government Counsel as also Sri.K.I.Mayankutty Mather, the learned counsel for the petitioners in these O.P.(CAT)'s and Sri.Martin G. Thottan, Sri. C.S. Gopalakrishnan Nair and Sri. Saiby Jose Kidangoor, the learned counsel for the respondents in all these O.P.(CAT)'s.

5. At the outset, we deem it apposite to notice the Rules governing the issue, namely, the Fundamental Rules [F.R. 17, F.R. 24, F.R. 56(a) and the 1st proviso to F.R. 56(a)] and Rules 3, 5, 14, 33 and 34 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, which read as follows:-

Fundamental Rules

“F.R. 17. (1) Subject to any exceptions specifically made in these rules and to the provision of sub-rule (2), an officer shall begin to draw the pay and allowances attached to his tenure of a post with effect from the date when he assumes the duties of that post, and shall cease to draw them as soon as he ceases to discharge those duties.

F.R. 24. An increment shall ordinarily be drawn as a matter of course unless it is withheld. An increment may be withheld form a Government servant by the Central Government or by any authority to whom the Central Government may delegate this power under Rule 6, if his conduct has not been good or his work has not been satisfactory. In ordering the withholding of an increment, the withholding authority shall state the period for which it is with held, and whether the post-ponement shall have the effect of postponing future increments.

F.R. 56(a). Except as otherwise provided in this rule, every Government servant shall retire from service on the afternoon of the last day of the month in which he attains the age of sixty years:

Provided that a Government servant whose date of birth is the first of a month shall retire from service on the afternoon of the last day of the preceding month on attaining the age of sixty years.”

Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules

“Rule 3

Clauses 1(b) (e) and (q)

1(b) 'Average Emoluments' means average emoluments as determined in accordance with Rule 34;

1(e) 'Emoluments' means emoluments as defined in Rule 33;

1(q) 'Qualifying Service' means service rendered while on duty or otherwise which shall be taken into account for the purpose of pension and