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Chaman Lal v. State of Punjab

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 2273 of 2011)Decided 16 May 2014
Civil Appeal No. 2273 of 2011
Justice B.S. Chauhan · Justice A.K. Sikri

Background

Chaman Lal worked as a truck driver for a registered fish-farmers' society before being absorbed in a Punjab government department shortly before retirement. He sought pension benefits by counting his earlier service. After losing in the lower courts, he relied on a pension decree obtained by another worker as proof that denying him the same benefit was discriminatory.

Decision Breakdown

The Court dismissed the appeal without costs. A previous proceeding between the same parties had established that his service in the autonomous society was not government service, and he showed no basis to reverse that conclusion. The other worker's decree could not supply a legal entitlement: it had awarded relief against Punjab without making the State a party. The Court considered that decree wrongly obtained and stressed that equality does not require repetition of an unlawful benefit. Consequently, the earlier society service did not establish the pension claim made here.

Lesson Learnt

Pension claims depend on the applicable service rules and the legal character of the employment. A benefit wrongly given to another person does not, by itself, create a right to the same benefit.

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

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