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Karan Singh v. Delhi Transport Corporation

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1179Decided 22 Oct 2019
Civil Appeal No. 12743 of 2017
Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Ajay Rastogi

Background

The appellant worked for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and took voluntary retirement in 1993 after crossing the age of 40 under DTC's voluntary retirement scheme. He later claimed he was entitled to pension under DTC's pension scheme, arguing he had completed the required 10 years of qualifying service once his training period was counted. The Central Administrative Tribunal had ruled in his favour, but the Delhi High Court reversed this, holding he had not completed the minimum qualifying service.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court carefully recalculated the appellant's service period, including his training period as a conductor, and found it totalled only about 9 years and 4 months: short of the mandatory 10-year minimum for pension eligibility. The Court also applied a recent three-judge bench ruling (DTC vs Balwan Singh) holding that periods of leave without pay must be excluded when calculating qualifying service for pension purposes. On this basis, even with the most favourable counting method, the appellant fell short of the threshold. The appeal was dismissed, upholding the High Court's decision.

Lesson Learnt

Pension eligibility often turns on strict, technical calculations of "qualifying service": periods like unpaid leave or pre-appointment training may or may not count depending on the specific pension rules, so employees should carefully verify their own service computation against the governing rules before assuming entitlement.

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

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