Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 14: : In a significant relief to long-serving daily wage employees, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jammu Bench, has quashed a government order placing a retired education department employee under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and directed his retrospective regularisation from 1996 with full Old Pension benefits.
Allowing the application filed by Saidullah Ahangar of Doda, the Tribunal held that the government cannot deny pensionary benefits to an employee by delaying regularisation for decades despite continuous service. The Bench observed that Ahangar had completed more than seven years of uninterrupted service by 1996, making him eligible for regularisation under SRO-64 of 1994, but was regularised only in 2018—just before retirement.
The Tribunal ruled that the employee’s right to regularisation accrued long before the introduction of NPS, and therefore placing him under the new pension scheme was illegal and arbitrary. It further held that an employee cannot be penalised for administrative apathy and prolonged inaction of the authorities.
Setting aside the impugned order dated April 25, 2018, the Tribunal directed the government to refix pay, pension and retiral benefits, including family pension, under the Old Pension Scheme, and release all consequential dues within three months. (JNF)
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