The court affirmed that service rendered on ad hoc basis must be recognized for pension eligibility when similarly situated employees received benefits, ensuring equitable treatment.

ORDER

PRAMOD KUMAR DAS, MEMBER (A):

The prayer of the applicant in this OA is to direct the Respondents to count his service from 04.01.1988 to 15.03.2007 rendered in National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) under the Integrated Disease Vector Control (IDVC) project as qualifying service for all purposes viz pension and other pensionary benefits by quashing the order dated 26.04.2019 wherein the Respondents rejected his representation.

2. According to Applicant, on 04.01.1988, on being selected through an open advertisement, he was appointed purely on temporary and ad hoc basis as a Technical Officer in the IDVC Project under Malaria Research Centre, NIMR in the pay scale of Rs. 2000-3200/- and posted at Berhampur Field Unit in Odisha. Thereafter, on 21.06.1988, he was transferred and posted at Rourkela Field Unit and, on 02.05.1989, he was posted to Shahjahanpur field Unit in the State of UP. On 31.12.1991, he was appointed as Research Scientist in the same IDVC Project in the pay scale of Rs. 2000-4000/- and on 30.06.1994 he was appointed as Senior Research Scientist in the same project in the pay scale of Rs. 3000-4500/-. During 2004-2005, he was posted as in charge of Car Nicobar Island. He was selected in the regular cadre of Senior Research Officer under MRC-NIMR in the pay scale of Rs. 3000- 4000/- and on 15.03.2007 he submitted his technical resignation from the post of Senior Research Scientist and joined in the post of Senior Research Officer on 16.03.2007 and his pay was also fixed in the cadre under FR 27. On 26.04.2019, he submitted representation for counting his period of service from the date of joining on temporary/adhoc basis under IDVC Project under Malaria Research Centre, National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) from 04.01.1988 till his joining as Senior Research Officer, i.e. 15.03.2007, but his representation was rejected vide order dated 26.04.2019 on the sole ground that the initial appointment of the applicant was not in a regular cadre in MRC, NIMR. The initial engagement of the applicant was purely on temporary and ad hoc basis in IDVC Project. Therefore, the said period cannot be counted for the purpose of pension and other pensionary dues. He approached before the CAT, Ranchi Circuit Bench in OA No. 971 of 2019. During the pendency of the said OA, he superannuated from service on 30.11.2019. On his prayer, the said OA was transferred to this Bench and renumbered as OA No. 692 of 2022.

3. Learned Counsel for the Applicant, in course of hearing, placed reliance on Rule 13 of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, to state that rejection of the representation was without due application of mind because the applicant was continuing under the IDVC project, without any break, followed by regularization, and, thus, in terms of Rule 13 of Rules, the applicant is entitled to count the entire period of service for all purpose. It is also stated that similarly situated employees working under IDVC project approached before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in W.P No. 1554 of 2003 praying for their regularization from their initial date of engagement under the project with consequential benefits such as Old Pension, Gratuity, ACP, MACP etc. and the direction issued therein has also been implemented granting the benefits to those applicants by the Government vide letter No. 69/11/2007-ECG-1 dated 08.01.2008 and letter No. 67/6/2003-ECG-1 dated 06.07.2009. The applicant has also placed on record copy of the order of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in WP No. 5715 of 2017 wherein it was directed that the respondents to uniformly implement regularization in respe