RAM PRASAD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeks to assail the order dtd. 26/5/2017 passed by the learned Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 2397/2014. Vide the impugned order, the learned Tribunal has rejected the petitioner's prayer for being covered under the CCS (CCA) Pension Act and Rules 1972 (commonly known as 'the Old Pension Scheme') and held that the respondent was rightly covered under the contributory pension scheme as notified on 22/12/2003 i.e the National Pension System (commonly known as the New Pension Scheme).

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the impugned order is wholly perverse as the learned Tribunal has failed to appreciate the fact that the claim of the petitioner was covered by various decisions of this Court, including the decision in Inspector Rajendra Singh and Ors vs. Union of India and Ors 2017 SCCOnLine Del 7879. She submits that the tribunal has failed to appreciate that even though the petitioner was appointed on the post of Stone Cutter on 11/5/2004, the selection process had commenced way back on 2/5/2001, when the petitioner was called to appear in the interview for his appointment to the regular post of stone cutter.

(3.) She further submits that this interview was deferred from time to time by the respondents themselves and was finally held on 17/6/2003, for which a call letter for the interview was issued to the petitioner only on 28/5/2003. The selection process having been completed way before 1/1/2004, when the New Pension Scheme became applicable, the petitioner could not be denied the benefits of the Old Pension Scheme, which was in force not only on 17/6/2003 but till as late as 31/12/2003. The respondents having themselves delayed the issuance of the appointment letter to the petitioner cannot be permitted to deny the benefit of the old pension scheme to the petitioner. She, therefore, prays that the impugned order be set aside by holding the petitioner as being eligible under the Old Pension Scheme.