Employees with uninterrupted service prior to 01.01.2004 are entitled to Old Pension Scheme benefits, not classified as new entrants under the New Pension Scheme.

JUDGEMENT

JYOTI SINGH, J. (ORAL)

1. This writ petition has been preferred on behalf of the Petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a declaration that Petitioner is entitled to pension as per the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) under Central Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 1972.

2. Factual matrix to the extent relevant and as emerging from the writ petition is that Petitioner served as a Lecturer on ad hoc basis in different Colleges of Respondent No. 1/University of Delhi (‘University’) between 1995 to 1999. She was appointed as a Lecturer on temporary basis in Satyawati College/Respondent No. 2 (‘College’) vide letter dated 11.10.1999. Petitioner avers that she was performing duties of teaching and research like any other regular lecturer in the College and her tenure continued uninterruptedly without any extension. Petitioner was granted leaves and increments etc. at par with regular lecturers.

3. By an Office Order dated 29.03.2007 issued by the College, Petitioner was informed that her service as a Lecturer in the Department of English was confirmed w.e.f. 13.01.2006 and she would be treated as a permanent employee. By letter dated 27.01.2009, University approved Petitioner’s promotion as Lecturer (Senior Scale), upon completion of 04 years of service w.e.f. 13.01.2006, which coincided with the date when she was confirmed as a Lecturer, under the Merit Promotion Scheme, 1998 (Scheme 1998),

4. It is averred that based on Selection Committee’s recommendations, the Governing Body of the College in its meeting held on 05.06.2021 approved Petitioner’s further promotions albeit belatedly and vide Office Order dated 02.08.2021 she was promoted to the post of Reader (Stage-III) w.e.f. 17.03.2006 and to the post of Associate Professor (Stage-IV) in Academic Level 13A w.e.f. 17.03.2009. Petitioner thus served the University for a long period of over 24 years commencing from 31.08.1995, before she retired on 31.12.2021.

5. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that Government of India introduced the National Pension Scheme (‘NPS’) vide Notification dated 22.12.2003, making the Scheme effective from 01.01.2004 for the new entrants who joined service on or after the said date. Petitioner has been in employment of the College from 1999 and cannot be treated as a new entrant under the NPS. Respondents are treating the Petitioner as a new entrant under the assumption that her date of appointment is 13.01.2006 i.e. the date she was appointed through an open recruitment process, overlooking the fact that Petitioner has been in employment prior to 01.01.2004, the date of enforcement of NPS. Despite several representations, Respondents are not acceding to Petitioner’s request to grant her pension under the OPS, which is wholly arbitrary and illegal.

6. The impugned action of the Respondents is in the teeth of their own Office Orders wherein they have granted promotion to the Petitioner as Lecturer (Senior Scale) w.e.f. 13.01.2006 which demonstrates that her past service was counted since as per Scheme 1998 promotion to Lecturer (Senior Scale) can only be after completion of 04 years of service. Similarly, vide Office Order dated 02.08.2021, Petitioner was further promoted to Reader (Stage-III) w.e.f. 17.03.2006 and to Associate Professor (Stage-IV) w.e.f. 17.03.2009 and this was on completion of eligibility period of total service of not less than 09 years for the post of Reader (Stage-III) and on completion of 03 years of service as Reader (Stage-III) for the post of Associate Professor (Stage-IV). In light of this, Petitioner cannot be treated as a new entrant from 13.01.2006.

7. Learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that NPS is not applicable to the Petitioner as the scheme applies only to ‘new entrant’ and though the said expression is not defined in NPS, it can only mean and connote a person who has entered service after 01.01.2004. It is submitted that commencement of qualifying service starts from the date incumb