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A.N. Sachdeva (Dead) By LRs. & Ors. v. Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak & Anr.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 626-627 of 2008)Decided 10 Aug 2015
Civil Appeal Nos. 626-627 of 2008
Justice M.Y. Eqbal · Justice Arun Mishra

Background

Several employees (a Steno-Typist/Private Secretary, an Assistant, a Lecturer, and a Clerk) had worked in Punjab University and/or Kurukshetra University before being absorbed into the newly carved-out Maharshi Dayanand University (M.D. University), Rohtak, without any break in service, and eventually retired from M.D. University. M.D. University refused to count their earlier years of service in Punjab/Kurukshetra University as "qualifying service" for computing pension, even though a 2001 Haryana Government memorandum had provided for such counting. The employees' representations were rejected, leading them to approach the High Court and then the Supreme Court after losing there.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that denying pensionary credit for unbroken prior service in the predecessor universities, while allowing it for employees who had been formally "absorbed/allocated" rather than "directly appointed," created an arbitrary and discriminatory classification that violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Since pension is not an ex gratia payment but recognition of service actually rendered, and all the appellants had served continuously across the universities, the Court found no reasonable basis to treat directly appointed employees differently. It allowed the appeals, set aside the High Court's judgment, and held the appellants entitled to count their earlier service as qualifying service for pension (prospectively from the 24.12.2001 memorandum), subject to adjusting any shortfall in their contributory provident fund against the pension due, to be completed within three months.

Lesson Learnt

Government/public employers cannot arbitrarily deny pension credit for genuine unbroken prior service merely because an employee was "directly appointed" rather than "absorbed", doing so can amount to unconstitutional discrimination between similarly placed employees.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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