Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - A No. - 7082 of 2020
Petitioner :- Prem Chandra Pathak
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 7 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Pramod Kumar Dubey Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
The present petition has been filed challenging the order dated 24.1.2020, whereby the claim of the petitioner for grant of pension has been rejected placing reliance on the Government Order dated 28.1.2004 and recording that the contribution by the petitioner was paid from May, 2004 to 31.3.2018. Thus the contribution was paid only for a period of 14 years, which fell short of the time prescribed by virtue of the Government Order dated 28.1.2004 and thus the entitlement of the petitioner was rejected.
The contention of learned counsel for the petitioner is that this question of eclipsing the rights of payment of pension by a Government Order came up for consideration before this Court in the case of Mangali Prasad Verma and others Vs. State of U.P. and others in Writ-A No. 17819 of 2007, wherein this Court vide its judgment dated 20.12.2012 has held as under:-
"11. Hence, in view of the aforesaid discussion, impugned order dated 13.12.2006 passed by District Inspector of Schools, Kanpur Nagar, respondent no. 5 as well as the condition imposed by Government Order dated 28.1.2004 fixing the cut- off date are hereby quashed. The respondents are directed to permit the petitioner, for deposit of the Management's contribution with interest within a period of two months and after deposit of the contribution, the respondents shall extend the benefit to the petitioner of the Government Order dated 28.1.2004 and Rules 1964 for payment of pension to the petitioner w.e.f. 1.7.1995 within a further period of two months. The petitioner is entitled for payment of the arrears of salary with 12% interest w.e.f. 1.7.1995 till the date of payment."
He further argues that the said judgment dated 20.12.2012 was upheld in the Special Appeal filed before this Court in the case of State of U.P. and others Vs. Mangali Prasad Verma and others; 2018 8 ADJ 680. He has further drawn my attention to the judgment of this Court dated 29.1.2015 in Writ-A No. 28679 of 2009 (Krishna Prasad Yadav Vs. State of U.P and others), wherein this Court after considering the rules prescribing for payment of pension held that a Government Order cannot curtail the vested rights followed the judgment of Mangali Prasad Verma (supra) and decided the issue.
As the issue in hand is squarely covered by the said two judgments, I deem it appropriate to set aside the the order dated 24.1.2020 with directions that the petitioner shall be entitled to the pension under the provisions of the Rules of 1964. The management contribution required to be deposited, according to the petitioner has already been deposited. As such steps shall be taken to compute the pension afresh and the same shall be paid to the petitioner as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of three months. The payment shall also carry out interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date when the pension fell due till the actual payment.
The writ petition stands allowed.
Copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court shall be treated/accepted as certified copy of this order.
Order Date :- 29.7.2021
S. Rahman