The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that an Employee appointed on contractual basis deserves to be counted towards qualifying service for pensionary benefits under CCS (Pension) Rules 1972 and for annual increments.
The court relied upon its own judgment which was passed in the case of Smt Sheela Devi V State of H.P. where it was held that service of an employee appointed on contractual basis in temporary capacity can be counted towards qualifying service for grant of pension after regularization of his service.
A bench led by Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh, Justice L Narayana Swamy along with Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua decided that contractual service rendered by the petitioners as Junior Basic Teachers shall be counted towards qualifying service for the purpose of pension under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 as well as for annual increments.
It further directed the state to release the due benefits to the Petitioners within a period of three months.
The Petitioner did his Shastri from HP University and became eligible for appointment as Shastri Teacher. He was eventually appointed on the contract basis w.e.f. 7.8.1997 on monthly honorarium. His services were eventually regularized w.e.f. 1.1.2006. The service of the Petitioner has not been counted for the purpose of pay scale, annual increments, seniority, promotion, pension under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 etc.
The order mentioned a previous case of Joga Singh wherein in a similar situation the benefits were conferred as according to the date of appointment and sub sequential benefits were granted. The applicant initially filed the petition with the appropriate tribunal wherein the direction was given to the Department of Education to consider the matter on merits. However, the Department of Education dismissed the application on the note that the present case is not similar as of Joga Singh.
Since the HP State Administrative Tribunal is now abolished; the present appeal is preferred in the court. The court while going through the case on the merits decided that the factual matrix of the present case is almost similar as of Joga Singh. Hence, the appeal accordingly was allowed.
Read Himachal Pradesh High Court order here
— India Legal Bureau