Appointment prior to 01.04.2003 qualifies for Old Pension Scheme, regardless of joining date post that date.

(Judgment of the Court was made by G.R.Swaminathan J.)

The unsuccessful writ petitioner is the appellant before us. The appellant was appointed as BT Assistant in the Block Resource Centre, Kottur, Thiruvarur District on 26.03.2003. However, the appellant joined duty only on 01.04.2003. The Contributory Pension Scheme came into force with effect from 01.04.2003. The only question that arose was whether the appellant is entitled to be placed under the Old Pension Scheme. Seeking the said relief, the appellant filed W.P(MD)No.11327 of 2014. The learned single Judge, vide order dated 10.11.2020, dismissed the said writ petition. Challenging the same, this Writ Appeal has been filed.

2.The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner reiterated all the contentions set out in the appeal and called upon this Court to set aside the order passed by the learned single Judge and grant relief as prayed for.

3.Per contra, the learned Special Government Pleader for the Education Department as well as the learned Standing Counsel for the Accountant General submitted that the order of the learned single Judge does not call for interference. They pointed out that the learned single Judge had only followed the earlier order dated 02.08.2017 made in W.A(MD)No.1529 of 2014 which incidentally was authored by one of us (GRSJ).

4.We carefully considered the rival contentions and went through the materials on record.

5.It is true that the order dated 02.08.2017 made in W.A(MD)No.

1529 of 2014 is in favour of the stand taken by the respondents and against the appellant. However, our attention is drawn to two subsequent decisions, namely, the order dated 14.03.2018 made in W.A(MD)No.370 of 2018 and the order dated 20.01.2025 made in W.A(MD)No.126 of 2025. The Hon’ble Division Bench while dismissing W.A(MD)No.370 of 2018 held as follows:

“3.The issue involved in this case, pertains to the interpretation of clause (3)(i) of G.O.Ms.No.259 Finance (Pension) Department dated 06.08.2003. The said condition states that a new Contributory Pension Scheme based on defined contributions will be introduced to the newly recruited employees. This will apply to all employees who are recruited on or after 01.04.2003. Admittedly, the first respondent was recruited prior to 01.04.2003 and issued order of appointment on 26.03.2003 and granted one week time to join duty. Prior to joining duty, the petitioner was required to obtain Medical Certificate from the Medical Board. One week time having been expired on 01.04.2003, since the Medical Board meets once in a week, the petitioner was able to get medical Certificate only on 04.04.2003 and joined duty on the said date. The Writ Court, in our considered view, rightly interpreted the meaning of the word “recruited” and word “joined”. The newly Contributory Pension Scheme is conscious about words “recruited” and “joined”. The recruitment of the first respondent was prior to 01.04.2013, the new Contributory Pension Scheme cannot be applied to the case of the first respondent. The Writ Court has given a correct interpretation.

4.The Special Government Pleader appearing for the appellants has referred to rules and contented that a person becomes a full member of service only from the date of joining the service. In fact, this issue was considered by the Writ Court, taking note of Rule 11 of Pension Rules, which deals with computation of qualifying service and as to whether the qualifying service is computed from the date of commencement or from the date of incubent takes charge of the post or not. Therefore, the interpretation given by the Writ Court is perfectly valid and proper.”

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