JUDGMENT :

Jagdish Singh Khehar, J.

1. The State of Himachal Pradesh came to be created, with effect from 25.1.1971. Consequent upon the creation of the State of Himachal Pradesh, employees engaged by the corporate sector, on their retirement, were being paid provident fund, under the provisions of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Provident Fund Act). The Central Government framed the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1995, whereby, it replaced the earlier statutory schemes, framed under the Provident Fund Act. This scheme was adopted for the corporate sector employees, engaged in the State of Himachal Pradesh.

2. In order to extend better retiral benefits to these employees, the Himachal Pradesh Government framed another scheme on 29.10.1999 – the Himachal Pradesh Corporate Sector Employees Pension (Family Pension, Commutation of Pension and Gratuity) Scheme, 1999. In the present judgment, the instant scheme will be referred to as ‘the 1999 Scheme’. A perusal of ‘the 1999 Scheme’ reveals that its application extended to employees of some of the corporate bodies (- specified in Annexure-I, appended to ‘the 199