K S R CHARI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, who is 91 years old, has approached this Court seeking directions to the Government of India (GoI?) in the Ministry of Coal and Mines (MoCM?) (Respondent No. 1), Coal India Limited (CIL?) (Respondent No. 2), and the Central Coalfields Ltd. (CCL?) (Respondent No. 3) to provide him the benefits of the Railway Pension and Family Pension Scheme (RP/FPS?) with retrospective effect from 1 st December 1977, the date of his retirement, and also pay interest on the arrears of pension. The Petitioner also challenges a decision dated 24 th October 1998 of the CIL rejecting the Petitioner?s application seeking to opt for the liberalized pension and Family Pension Scheme (FPS?) as well as the decision dated 5 th August 2004 of the MoCM rejecting a similar request.

(2.) The Petitioner joined the State Railways Coal Department on 14 th January 1942. At that time, the Railways had no pension scheme. There was only a State Railways Provident Fund (SRPF?) Scheme. Consequently, the Petitioner commenced contributing to the SRPF from the beginning of his service career.

(3.) After Independence, a new public sector undertaking, i.e., the National Coal Development Corporation Limited (NCDC?) was formed. The State Railway Collieries along with their employees were en bloc transferred by the GoI to the NCDC. The Petitioner states that there was confusion as regards the service conditions of the transferred employees. As a result a Presidential Order dated 16 th August 1965 was issued by the GoI in the Ministry of Steel and Mines (MoSM?). Para 2 of the said Presidential Order reads as under: