MANOJ PANT Vs. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners who are the erstwhile and serving teachers in the Jawaharlal Nehru University[1] have petitioned this Court seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) The grievance which is voiced on the petition is a refusal on the part of JNU to permit them to change over to the General Provident Fund Cum Pension Scheme [2]. On 1/5/1987, the Union Government through its Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions issued an Office Memorandum [3] providing for existing and retired employees to change from the Contributory Provident Fund Scheme [4] to the GPF scheme. Since the case revolves around the provisions made in this O.M., the same is being extracted hereinunder:

(3.) The O.M. essentially provided for options being exercised by employees who sought to continue under the CPF scheme. It further stipulated that the options in this respect would have to be exercised and submitted to the competent authority by 30/9/1987. The O.M. significantly provided that if no option is received by the competent authority by the date prescribed and referred to above, the employees would be deemed to have come over to the pension scheme. In para 3.6, it was further provided that the options once exercised would be treated as final. Para 6.2 of O.M. then proceeded to record that the same would not apply to Central Government employees who were continuing either on re- employment or on contractual terms. It further provided in para 6.3 that its provisions would also not apply to Scientific and Technical Personnel of the Departments of Atomic Energy, Space Electronics and such other scientific departments which had adopted systems prevailing in the Department of Atomic Energy. In terms of the directions contained in para 7.1 and 7.2, the Administrative Ministries in the Union Government were consequently advised to issue appropriate orders in respect of all CPF beneficiaries in order to apprise them of its provisions.