SHRI RADHARANJAN PATTANAIK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these writ petitions are being disposed of by this common judgment as identical issues are to be decided in the cases. In W.P.(C) No.8032/2009 there are 12 petitioners and in W.P.(C) No.8090/2009 there is one petitioner. The issue which calls for decision is the entitlement or otherwise of the petitioners who were employees of the respondent No.4-University to pension. Pension was granted. Pension was thereafter continued for 10 years or so. Pension was thereafter stopped by the order dated 20.12.2008 of the Registrar of the respondent No.4-University which relied upon a memo dated 30.8.2007 of the respondent No.1/Union of India through the Ministry of Agriculture.

(2.) The facts of the case are that the petitioners were employees of Agro Economic Research Centre (AERC) which was functioning as a unit of the Ministry of Agriculture in the respondent No.4-University. AERCs have been functioning since about 1954 and were fully funded by the respondent No.1. Originally, AERC was sponsored by respondent No.4. After 1954 in due course many AERCs opened and at the time of filing of the writ petition, there were 15 AERCs in different States. Objects of the schemes for implementation of such Centres were:

(3.) In view of the fact that there was effective functioning of the AERCs, a proposal was mooted to merge the AERCs at different places with the respective Universities where they were functioning. The proposal for integration so far as the subject AERC (in which petitioners were working) with the respondent No.4-University was concretized by means of an MoU dated 23.3.2000 which was signed between the respondent No.1 and respondent No.4.