Allahabad High Court
Bhanu Pratap Sharma vs State Of U.P. And 4 Others on 6 October, 2020
Author: Saral Srivastava
Bench: Saral Srivastava
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 80 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 35301 of 2017 Petitioner :- Bhanu Pratap Sharma Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Bhupendra Nath Singh,Pramendra Pratap Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Saral Srivastava,J.
(order on order sheet) Heard Sri Bhupendra Nath Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.
Perused the office report dated 5.10.2020 which reads as under:-
"In compliance of Hon'ble Court's order dated 27.11.2018 for tracing of Amendment Application filed on 31.8.2017, the office humbly submits that the said amendment application is not traced out after vigorous search.
The Hon'ble Court may grant some more time for tracing the same. If any, inconvenience caused to Hon'ble Court, office is highly regretted."
Sri Bhupendra Nath Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that now there is no requirement of the amendment in the writ petition and the amendment application may be dismissed as not pressed.
Therefore, the amendment application is dismissed as not pressed.
(order on writ petition) Heard Sri Bhupendra Nath Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for the State-respondents.
The petitioner was appointed as Helper in the department of Irrigation at Jhansi. His services were regularized w.e.f. 5.8.2006. The petitioner retired on 31.1.2017. The grievance of the petitioner is that his pension has not been paid.
In the aforesaid backdrop, the petitioner has prayed for following main reliefs:-
"II. Issue a further writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to regularized the services of the petitioner from the date when junior to the petitioner have been regularized with all other service benefits.
III. Issue a further writ order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to treat the petitioner covered by old pension scheme and direct the respondents to pay death cum retirement gratuity pension leave encashment as admissible to the regular employee. "
In the counter affidavit, the respondents have not disputed the date of appointment of the petitioner as 25.4.1979 as Helper. The respondents has also not disputed the date regularization of the petitioner as 5.8.2006. However, they asserted that the services rendered by the petitioner as Helper cannot be counted for service for the purposes of pension in view of the Government Order dated 6.10.2016 and also Regulation 370 of Civil Services Regulations.
Sofar as the aforesaid averment of the counter affidavit is concerned, the Apex Court has settled the controversy in Appeal No. 6798 of 2019 (Prem Singh vs. State of U.P. and others) & connected petitions wherein the Apex Court has held that the services rendered as work-charge employee are liable to counted for the purposes of counting qualifying service for pension.
In this view of the fact, the plea taken by the respondents that the services rendered by the petitioner as work charge employee are not liable to be counted for the pension is misconceived and not sustainable.
Thus, for the reasons given above, the writ petition is allowed and mandamus is issued upon the respondent No. 3-Engineer in Chief, Department of Irrigation Government of U.P. Lucknow to pay all the pensionary benefits to the petitioner in terms of the judgment of Apex Court in the case of Prem Singh (supra) within a period of four months from the date of filing of copy of the order.
In view of the fact that due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the certified copy is not being issued by the High Court, therefore, the order downloaded from the website duly certified by learned counsel for the petitioner may be treated as true copy of the order and the Authority may not refuse to comply the order on the ground of non filing of certified copy of the order.
Order Date :- 6.10.2020 Jaswant