Entitlement of tenure and contract service for increments and pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.

Kurian Joseph, C.J.

1. Petitioners in all these cases are aggrieved basically since they are not granted increments during the period of their tenure/contract service. According to the Petitioners, all of them have been recruited through the permitted process of recruitment however, at the time of appointment they have been appointed on tenure/contract basis. It is contended by the Petitioners that the temporary capacity was followed by regular appointment and hence they are entitled to get the period of tenure/contract service rendered by them counted for the purpose of increments and pension.

2. The learned Advocate General submits that the Petitioners have been appointed in terms of the policy of the State Government from time to time. The Petitioners are bound by the terms of appointment. The Petitioners, in any case, as far as contractual appointments are concerned have executed specific agreements and parties are bound by the terms of the agreement and nothing more. It is also contended that the Petitioners have not been appointed through the regular process of recruitment either by the Public Service Commission or by the Subordinate Services Selection Board and for that only reason, they are not entitled for any relief and regularization granted to them itself is a generous gesture on the part of the Government since after regularization they are put in regular scale and are treated at par with other regular employees. It is further submitted that this generous gesture shown by the Government is in deviation of the normal channel of recruitment. It is not as if any injustice was done to the Petitioners. Indulgence in terms of equity and justice was granted by offering them regular appointment. Hence, there is no justification, in their request for counting the period as qualifying service for increments or pension as far as tenure/contract appointment is concerned.

3. Learned Counsel for the Petitioners in reply submitted that all of them have been recruited through regular channel of recruitment and that there is no back door entry. It is also submitted that they have been put in the scale at the time of appointment and hence they are entitled to be treated at par with those employees appointed in the scale. Still further it is submitted that in the case of the employees who have been appointed on ad hoc basis and whose ad hoc service was followed by regular appointment, they are in any case given benefit of increments during the period of ad hoc service and still further the said period is counted for the purpose of pension.

4. As far as ad hoc appointment followed by regular appointment is concerned, there is no dispute that said ad hoc period is liable to be counted for the purpose of increments and that position has become final in view of the decision in LPA No. 36 of 2010. However, it is to be specifically noted that in case of such ad hoc appointment, the Government itself had issued a clarification initially in the year 1987 and thereafter on 2.11.1995 that the ad hoc Lecturers appointed on running grade and getting increments will be entitled to count such period for the purpose of pension. Therefore in the matter of the entitlement of ad hoc appointees, appointed on running scale and whose appointments are followed by the regular appointments without break the position is settled that they are entitled to increments during the period of ad hoc service. On the first principle of service jurisprudence, it is also settled position that any period counted for the purpose of increment has to be counted for the purpose of pension as well since the same is a qualifying service, though the vice versa is not invariably so.

5. We may now analyse the basis of the claim of the Petitioners as far as the tenure and contractual period is concerned. Under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, qualifying service is defined in Rule 3(1)(q) which reads as follows:

Qualifying Service' means service rendered while on duty or otherwise