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Binod Kumar Singh vs. Central Sanskrit University, formerly Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan & Ors.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2026:DHC:7902Decided 10 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(C) 6791/2022CNR: DLHC010164802022
Justice Sanjeev Narula

Background

The petitioner moved from a government body (NIEPA) to Central Sanskrit University (CSU) as Registrar on a tenure contract that expressly let him keep his old government pension scheme, with his earlier years of service counted for pension purposes once NIEPA transferred the corresponding money to CSU, which NIEPA did, and CSU accepted. Years later, after his removal (subsequently softened by an earlier court order into a "termination simpliciter" without stigma), CSU refused to pay him pension or gratuity, calling him a mere contractual employee covered by a different, lower provident-fund scheme, and tried unsuccessfully to send the transferred money back to NIEPA.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that CSU was bound by the written terms of the Service Agreement and its own 2014 memorandum, both of which recorded that the petitioner would continue under the old pension scheme with his past service counted, and CSU had already accepted the corresponding funds from NIEPA, fulfilling the one condition the agreement required. CSU could not now use old disciplinary allegations (already neutralized by the earlier court order) to strip him of pension rights, nor treat him as a lesser "CPF" employee after having treated him as a pension employee for years. The Court directed CSU to compute and pay his pension, gratuity, provident fund (adjusting sums already paid), and notice pay, with specified interest for the delay, and to correct his service records.

Lesson Learnt

An employer that accepts a transferred pension fund and formally records an employee's continuation in the old pension scheme cannot later relabel that employee as merely contractual to avoid paying pension and gratuity: retiral benefits are a legal entitlement, not a favour, and unexplained delay in paying them attracts interest.

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