Allahabad High Court
Dinesh Singh And 8 Others vs State Of Up And 2 Others on 1 February, 2024
Author: Prakash Padia
Bench: Prakash Padia
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:17555
Court No. - 35
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 1157 of 2024
Petitioner :- Dinesh Singh And 8 Others
Respondent :- State Of Up And 2 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Indra Raj Singh,Adarsh Singh
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Prakash Padia,J.
1.Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.
2.By means of this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners have prayed for a writ of mandamus commanding respondent no.2 Executive Engineer Nalkoop Khand (North) Bulandshahar to consider his claim for grant of benefit of old pension scheme taking into account, the entire length of service rendered by them prior to regularization .
3.Learned counsel for the petitioners were selected and appointed on the post of part time Tubewell Operators in Nalkoop Khand (North) Bulandshahar and subsequently their designation has been changed as Tubewell Assistant and they have started getting regular payscale with all annual increment and they were regularized vide order dated 04.09.2008 and they were attained the age of superannuation between 2019 to 2023. He further submits that petitioners vide representation dated 21.12.2023 have already prayed for grant of pensionary benefits as admissible under the old pension scheme.
4.Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that since this case is squarely covered by the judgment of Supreme Court in the case of Prem Singh v. State of U.P. and others; 2019 (10) SCC 516 which has been followed by co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of Kaushal Kishore Chaubey and others v. State of U.P. and others (Writ - A No.- 5817 of 2020) and by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Chetram v. State of U.P. and others (Special Appeal Defective No.- 1278 of 2020) and also in a series of other judgments passed by the co-ordinate Benches of this Court, the representation of the petitioner may be directed to be disposed of accordingly.
5.Learned counsel for the petitioner has also relied upon the the order of Supreme Court in the case of The State of Gujarat and others v. Talsibhai Dhanjibhai Patel (Special Leave to Appeal (C) No.- 1109 of 2022) decided on 18th February, 2022. The Supreme Court while dismissing the special leave to appeal under the order, has observed thus:
"It is unfortunate that the State continued to take the services of the respondent as an ad-hoc for 30 years and thereafter now to contend that as the services rendered by the respondent are ad-hoc, he is not entitled to pension/ pensionary benefit. The State cannot be permitted to take the benefit of its own wrong. To take the Services continuously for 30 years and thereafter to contend that an employee who has rendered 30 years continuous service shall be eligible for pension is nothing but unreasonable. As a welfare State, the State as such ought not to have taken such a stand.
In the present case, the High Court has not committed any error in directing the State to pay pensionary benefits to the respondent who has retired after rendering more than 30 yeas service.
Hence, the Special Leave Petition stands dismissed.
Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of."
6.Learned counsel for the respondent Ms. Shruti Malviya submits that since petitioner has already raised grievance before the competent authority, the same should be directed to be looked into and considered in accordance with law and in the light of the authorities cited if are applicable, within a specified period of the time and accordingly he has no objection in the event petition is disposed of with such directions.
7. In view of the above, this petition stands disposed of with a direction to the concerned competent respondent to consider and decide the claim of the petitioner as raised in his representation dated 21.12.2023 in the light of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Prem Singh (supra) and the order passed in the case of State of Gujarat (supra) and Division Bench of this Court in the case of Chetram (supra) considering the applicability of pensionary benefits applying the principles laid down in the above referred judgments within a period of three months from the date of production of certified copy of this order and of course if petitioner has retired from an establishment where pension rules were applicable. In the event claim of the petitioner is found to be valid, his pension shall be fixed as per the rules and the entire post retirement dues including pension be released within a further period of six weeks.
Order Date :- 1.2.2024
T.S.
