The main legal point established in the judgment is that the interpretation of the term 'Month' in the Kerala Service Rules and the calculation of qualifying service for pension benefits should adhere to the unambiguous language of the relevant rules, and the completed years of service should be considered first, followed by completed calendar months.

JUDGMENT :

SHOBA ANNAMMA EAPEN, J.

1. This O.P. (KAT) is filed by the State of Kerala, aggrieved by the order dated 22.12.2022 in O.A. (EKM) No. 1005/2020 of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal, Thiruvananthapuram. The petitioners are the respondents in the Original Application and the respondent is the applicant.

2. The issue for consideration is regarding the calculation of the length of qualifying service and the interpretation of the term “Month” in sub-rule 21 of Rule 12 of the Kerala Service Rules (for short “the K.S.R.”).

3. The brief facts of the case are as follows:

The respondent/applicant served in Government service from 09.11.1990 to 30.04.2019 and retired from the Law Department as Deputy Secretary on 30.04.2019. Pensionary benefits were granted to him counting his total service as 28 years, 5 months, and 22 days, which was rounded off to 28 years. The claim of the respondent is that an additional one day accrued during each of the seven leap years should be included in calculating his eligible service. Furthermore, he contends that, following the method of considering completed calendar years of service, the number of days in each month should be taken into account, with an extra day for each leap year, to determine the fraction of the year, whether it is less than half a year or above half a year. Therefore, according to him, he has eligible service of 28 years and six months, which as per the provisions of KSR will get rounded off to 29 years which will have a significant impact on his retirement benefits.

4. The Tribunal considered the issue elaborately and allowed the Original Application finding that the respondent has 29 years of total qualifying service, adopting a method that involves counting the number of days in a month and adding one day for every leap year. Aggrieved by the same, the State has come in appeal.

5. Heard Sri. Saigi Jacob Palatty, the learned Senior Government Pleader appearing for the petitioners and the learned counsel appearing for the respondent/applicant.

6. For a better understanding of the provisions, firstly we will refer to Rule 57 Part III of KSR as follows:

“The amount of pension that may be granted is determined by the length of service as set forth in Rules 64 to 70. Fraction of a year, if any, in the service will be rounded to the nearest completed year i.e. fractions less than half year will be ignored and half year and above rounded to the next completed year.”

7. The learned Senior Government Pleader appearing for the petitioners submitted that considering the respondent's total service of 28 years, 05 months, and 22 days from 09.11.1990 to 30.04.2019, the qualifying service of the applicant was fixed at 28 years following the provisions contained in Rule 57 of Part III KSR. They further contended that even if the applicant is entitled to include an additional day for each of the seven leap years, the applicant's service falls short by one day for the 6 months needed to get it rounded off to the next completed year.

8. Per Contra, the learned Counsel for the respondent/applicant contends that after considering completed years of service, the number of days in each month should be counted separately and an extra day for each of the seven leap years should be added along with those days.

9. The petitioners vehemently refute this claim and assert that the number of days in a month cannot be counted separately. Instead, for calculating the qualifying service, a month shall be a calendar month, irrespective of the days contained in it, and a year shall mean a calendar year. The completed years of service shall be considered first, followed by completed calendar months. If the total number of remaining days, plus an extra day for each leap year in the entire service, is 30 days or more, it can be deemed as an additional month.

10. The State relies on sub-rule 21 of Rule 12 of Part I KSR, which reads as follows:

“(21) Month: Means a calendar month. In calculating a period expressed in terms