SC: Service in Supreme Court Legal Aid/Services Committee shall be qualifying service for purpose of Pension & Retiral benefits (Read Judgement)

Facts of the case are that some serving and retired employees of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee in various capacities claimed that the entire service rendered by them should be treated as qualifying service for the purpose of fixing the retiral benefits, but their claim was rejected.

Supreme court bench comprising of Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice L. Nageswara Rao held that Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee was created under administrative Instructions of the Government. Thereafter, the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 came into force. The services of the officers and employees were governed by Rule 3A and after 2000, they are governed by the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee Regulations, 2000.They have been rendering service uninterruptedly as employees of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee and no distinction can be made between the service prior to 03.07.2000 and the service rendered thereafter. The petitioners have been regular employees of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee and their entire service must be counted for determining their pension and other retiral benefits. This entire service is to be treated as their qualifying service in accordance with the Rules.