Daya Nand vs Union Of India And Ors.
2001 Latest Caselaw 1516 Del

JUDGMENT

Mukundakam Sharma, J.

1. Inn this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for quashing of the order dated 13th September, 1995, issued by the respondents intimating the counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner was not entitled to grant of service pension as he had not rendered the required qualifying service to earn such pension with a further prayer that a direction should be given to the respondents to pay pension to the petitioner with effect from 15th Septermber, 1973.

2. It is contended in the petition that the petitioner jointed the Territorial Army on 1st October, 1996 and hat he was discharged there form on 14th Septermber, 1973. It is stated that the petitioner had completed in all 14 years 6 months and 3 days of service in the Territorial Army and, therefore, he is entitled to grant of pension as the personnel of Territorial Army are governed by the Army Act, Rules and Regulations applicable to the Army personnel. In support of the aforesaid statement made in the petition, counsel appearing for the petitioner relied upon the provisions of Regulations 289,290 & 155 of the Army Regulations.

3. Counsel appearing for the respondents, however, submitted that the petitioner was enrolled in the Territorial Army on 13th March, 1959 and he was discharged from the Territorial Army service with effect from 15th September, 1973 under the provisions of the Territorial Army Act, and Rules framed therein on the ground that his service is no longer required as he was not traceable. It was also stated by her that the total aggregate embodied service of the petitioner in the Territorial Army service works out to 5 years 140 days excluding 50 days which was held to be not qualifying service. The details of the same have been set out in the counter affidavit filed by the respondents. It was also submitted by the counsel appearing for the respondents that at the time of the discharge of the petitioner from the Territorial Army service, there was no provisions of grant of service pension to the Territorial Army personnel and hat the petitioner had also not completed minimum requirement of 15 years qualifying service and, therefore, he was rightly not granted the service pension.

4. Counsel appearing for the respondents has also drawn my attention to the contents of the letter of the Government of India, Ministry of defense dated 11th June, 1985 as amended wherein, it was stated that personnel who have a minium qualifying aggregate embodied service in the Territorial Army including former qualifying Army service, if any, of 15 years, are eligible for grant of service pension. It was also submitted by her that the said orders were made applicable to all serving Territorial Army personnel and those already released and have taken effect from 11t August, 1985, that is the date of issue of the Government letter.

5. I have carefully examined the records of the case and also relevant provisions of the Army Regulations and territorial Army Act. Regulation 289 provides that the grant of pensionary awards to members of the Territorial Army shall be governed by the same general regulations as are applicable to the corresponding personnel of the Army except where they are inconsistent with the provisions of regulations in the particular chapter. Regulation 290 also provides that military service for purposes of this chapter shall mean service as defined in Section 7(3) of the Territorial Army Act, 1948 and training as defined in Rule 18 of the Territorial Army Rules, 1948. Regulation 157 makes provision for payment of reservist pension to a person who is prematurely transferred to the reserve.

6. The aforesaid provisions make it amply clear that os far Territorial Army is concerned, for the purpose of grant of pensionary awards, Regulation 157 on which reliance was placed by the petitioner would not be applicable and, therefore, reliance on the said provision is totally misplaced. Section 7(3) of the Territorial Army Act provides that every officer or enrolled person shall be liable to perform military service when called out tin the prescribed manner to act in support of the civil power or to provide essential guards and when embodied in the prescribed manner for training or for supporting or supplementing the regular fores or when attached to any regular forces either at his own request or under the prescribed conditions. It is only when the aforesaid condition as laid down in Section 7(3) of the Territorial Army Act is satisfied then and then only the service so rendered would be deemed to be military service in terms of Regulation 290 of the Army Regulations. For grant of pensionary benefit a Territorial Army personnel has to fulfill qualifying service with the aforesaid condition. The petitioner had worked in the Territorial Army only for a total period of 5 years 140 days excluding 50 days which was held to be not qualifying service. The petitioner cannot avail of a period when he was not serving in accordance with the conditions laid down in Section 7(3) of the Territorial Army Act. Therefore, in terms of such provisions and on a reasonable interpretation thereof the petitioner is not entitled to grant of any pension. Therefore, the decision of the respondents in not granting service pension to the petitioner cannot in any manner be said to be illegal and unreasonable.

7. Therefore, I find no merit in this petition and the petition stands dismissed but without any costs.