HIMACHAL PRADESH UNIVERSITY Vs. RAMESH CHADHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short question which arises in this writ petition is whether the long continuous ad -hoc service rendered by the respondent/ employee should be counted towards her qualifying service in terms of Rule 13 of the CCS. (Pension) Rules.

(2.) THE brief facts necessary for decision of the case are that the respondent was initially appointed as Junior Lecturer in English in the H.P. University vide order dated 24.1.1977 issued by the Registrar at a fixed salary of Rs. 500/ - P.M. purely on temporary basis. Thereafter, the Executive Council of the University in its meeting held on 7.9.1977 considered the case of the respondent alongwith others and it was decided to give them fixed salary of Rs. 700/ - P.M. by treating them as Evaluators. At that time, the respondent was only a post -graduate. Thereafter, she did her M. Phil, and the Executive Council of the University vide resolution dated 1.7.1980 decided to grant regular scale of Rs. 700 -1300 to the respondent with effect from 28.7.1979, the date she qualified her M. Phil examination. In the order it was noted that the continuation of the respondent would be on ad -hoc basis in the designation of Evaluator. Undisputedly the Executive Council in its meeting held on 30.5.1986 took a decision to regularize the services of all the Evaluators and Research Associates with immediate effect. The services of the respondent were also regularized. The respondent retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation on 1.7.1998. Thereafter, the pensionary and other retiral benefits were granted to her by reckoning her qualifying service only from the date of regularization i.e. 30.6.1986 till the date of superannuation.

(3.) WE have heard Mr. B.C. Negi, learned Counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Surender Sharma, learned Counsel for the respondent. Rule 13 of the C.C.S. (Pension) Rules reads as follows: 13. Commencement of qualifying service Subject to the provisions of these rules, qualifying service of a Government servant shall commence from the date he takes charge of the post to which he is first appointed either substantively or in an officiating or temporary capacity: Provided that officiating or temporary service is followed without interruption by substantive appointment in the same or another service or post: Provided further that: (a) in the case of a Government servant in a Group 'D' service or post who held a lien or a suspended lien on a permanent pensionable post prior to the 17th April, 1950, service rendered before attaining the age of sixteen years shall not count for any purpose, and (b) in the case of a Government servant not covered by Clause (a), service rendered before attaining the age of eighteen years shall not count, except for compensation gratuity. (c) The provisions of Clause (b) shall not be applicable in the cases of counting of military service for civil pension under Rule 19.