Court relief for retired state govt employees

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

In a major relief for Punjab government pensioners who retired with effect from January 1, 2006, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that they were entitled to the benefit of pension from that date and not the earlier specified cut-off date of December 1, 2011.

Justice Augustine George Masih also rapped the state for not reconsidering the issue before taking a fresh decision on the cut-off date for implementing the decision contained in letter dated December 15, 2011.

The rap and the directions by Justice Masih came on 89 petitions challenging letter dated January 6, 2015, issued by the Punjab Finance Pension Policy & Coordination Department reiterating its earlier decision on the date for implementing government instructions after accepting the recommendations of the 5th Punjab Pay Commission on pension and other cumulative benefits with effect from December 1, 2011.

The petitioners’ grievance was that the government vide letter dated December 15, 2011, dispensed with the linkage of full pension with qualifying service of 33 years and took a decision that employee having rendered minimum qualifying service of 25 years would be admissible to pension equal to 50 per cent of the emoluments or average emoluments received during the last 10 months of his service, whichever was beneficial to him. The instructions were not applicable to employees governed by the new pension scheme. It added that the orders would come into force from December 1, 2011, instead of January 1, 2006. Taking up petitions challenging the same, a Single Judge directed the respondents to consider the claims of the petitioners and similarly placed employees treating the government decision as conveyed in letter December 15, 2011, to be effective from January 1, 2006. Acting on an appeal, a Division Bench directed the state to reconsider the issue and taking a fresh decision on the cut-off date.

The government, in response to an RTI plea, subsequently stated that for giving benefit to the retired employees from January 1, 2006, to November 30, 2011, the financial burden would be Rs 932 crore which was unbearable.

Justice Masih asserted the exercise carried out by the state was based on conjectures, apparent from its written statement and RTI information. “It would not be wrong to conclude that the state proceeded on assumptions with regard to facts and figures which are not expected from the state, especially when having lost before the Single Bench of this court, in an appeal, another opportunity had been given to reconsider the matter by the Division Bench,” Justice Masih added.