Employees retiring on 30th June are entitled to annual increments earned prior to retirement, with denial based on retirement date deemed arbitrary and contrary to fair labor principles.

JUDGMENT

Date : 29-04-2025

1. Heard learned senior counsel for the petitioners, Shri. Tej Bahadur Singh and learned AC to GP-12.

2. The learned senior counsel for the petitioners submits that the instant writ petition was filed on 17-5-2019, it is submitted that the said submission has been made regarding filing of writ petition for the reason that it has bearing on the adjudication of the present case.

3. The learned senior counsel further submits that the instant writ petition has been filed seeking a direction upon the respondent Nos. 2 to 4 for granting the benefit of annual increment for their last year of service, which has been denied to the petitioners on the grounds that petitioners have retired on 30^th June and the annual increment as per 6^th Pay Revision and 7^th Pay Revision has been made admissible to the employees on 1^st of July, further for a direction upon the respondent Nos. 2 to 4 to treat the date of retirement of the petitioners to be 1^st July of their respective year of retirement and to grant them all consequential benefits including the pensionary benefits, further for holding that it was incorrect on part of the respondent No. 2 and 4 to have denied the petitioners their annual increment for their last year of service in view of the facts that the petitioners, who have retired on 30^th June in their respective year of retirement, had worked for complete one year, thus the annual increment which accrued on the next day of their retirement on 1^st July could not have been denied, apart from other consequential reliefs.

4. The learned senior counsel for the petitioners thus submits that in sum and substance the prayer of the petitioners is to grant annual increment for their last year of service by adding in their last basic pay and accordingly to revise their pension. It is further submitted that the details of the date of retirement of all the 23 petitioners have been mentioned at paragraph-5 of the writ petition. It is also submitted that the petitioners retired in between 2009 to 2019 on 30^th June in their respective year of retirement.

5. It is further submitted that Department of Finance, Government of Bihar issued memo No. 3A-2-16/09-630 dated 21-1-2010 (Annexure-2) regarding revision of pay scale of the State government employees with effect from 1-1-2006 by adopting the approval granted by the central government to the recommendation of 6^th Central Pay Commission. The aforesaid resolution dated 21-1-2010 vide its Clause 10 dealt with the date of next increment in the revised pay scale. As per Clause 10, the uniform date of annual increment has been identified as 1^st of July every year. The employees completing 6 months and above in the revised pay scale as of 1^st July would be granted the increment.

6. The learned senior counsel for the petitioners next submits that the petitioners effectively have served one complete year from the last annual increment i.e. 1^st July of the preceding calendar year until 30^th June of their respective year of retirement. It is submitted that the petitioners by virtue of Clause 10 of the resolution dated 21-1-2010 have been denied their last annual increment which is having cascading effect on their pension, as pension is calculated on the last pay drawn and as such the pension of the petitioners has been fixed on their last pay drawn without adding their last annual increment in their last pay scale drawn.

7. The learned senior counsel for the petitioners by way of example submits that if the last pay drawn of a person was Rs. 100, then his pension would be fixed as per Rs. 100, but if the last annual increment would have been added to Rs. 100, the sa