Summary
The Court upheld Bihar’s 2013 scheme governing pension credit for regularised work-charged employees. Earlier work-charged service could be used under Rule 5(v) to make qualifying service sufficient for pension, but the employees could not demand that their entire earlier tenure increase the pension amount. Prem Singh was distinguished as addressing exclusion from qualifying service.
Issues
- Whether the entire work-charged tenure had to count towards pension quantum after regularisation.
- Whether Rule 5(v)’s limited credit and qualifying-service protection were valid.
Provisions considered
- Rule 5(v), Work Charged Establishment Revised Service Conditions (Repealing) Rules, 2013Upheld the prescribed one-year credit per five years of work-charged service and further addition needed to satisfy minimum qualifying service. (¶¶ 6, 6.1-6.3, 7)
Held
- The scheme retained old-pension coverage, prescribed one year of credit for every five years of work-charged service, and protected eligibility by adding further service needed to meet the ten-year minimum. It prevented denial of pension to long-serving employees merely because regular service was insufficient. (¶¶ 6, 6.1)
- The claim to count the whole earlier tenure for pension quantum failed. Under the scheme considered, qualifying-service protection did not retrospectively regularise the entire work-charged tenure or remove the distinction from substantive regular employment. (¶¶ 6.2, 7)
- Prem Singh addressed denial of qualifying-service credit under the Uttar Pradesh rules. It did not compel the full-tenure increase in pension quantum claimed here; reliance on it to invalidate this scheme was misplaced. (¶ 6.3)
Result
Appeals dismissed without costs; the limited counting of work-charged service under Rule 5(v) and the High Court’s conclusion were upheld.