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The State of Punjab and Ors. v. Gurbaran Singh

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 303Decided 1 Mar 2019
Civil Appeal No. 2411 of 2019
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

The respondent, a pharmacist with the Punjab Health Department, resigned from service in 1986, and his resignation was accepted. He later claimed he was entitled to pension and other service benefits, but the State granted him only gratuity and provident fund. He sued and won in the trial court and first appellate court, which ordered the State to pay him pensionary benefits with interest; the Punjab and Haryana High Court also dismissed the State's second appeal, rejecting the State's argument that a specific service rule barred retiral benefits for employees who resign.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that under Rule 7.5(1) of the Punjab Civil Services Rules, resignation from service (unless permitted to be withdrawn, or unless taken to join another government post) results in forfeiture of past service for pension purposes, relying on its own earlier decision in Union of India v. Braj Nandan Singh, which interpreted an identical central rule the same way. Since the respondent's resignation did not fall within the narrow exception, his past service stood forfeited and he had no qualifying service for a pension claim. The Court allowed the State's appeal and set aside the High Court's judgment, but as a matter of equity directed that the money already paid to the respondent in 2018 need not be recovered from him, while no further payments were to be made.

Lesson Learnt

An employee who resigns from government service (rather than retiring or transferring to another qualifying government post) generally forfeits credit for past service and cannot later claim a pension based on that service, unless a specific rule exception applies.

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

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