Punjab-Haryana High Court
A.P. Sharma And Others vs State Of Punjab And Others on 22 October, 2013
C.W.P. No.25733 of 2012 -1-
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
C.W.P. No.25733 of 2012
Date of decision : 22.10.2013
A.P. Sharma and others
...... Petitioners
Versus
State of Punjab and others
...... Respondents
CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY TEWARI
***
Present : Mr. C.M. Chopra, Advocate
for the petitioners.
Mr. I.P. Goyat, Addl.A.G., Punjab.
***
1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?
2. To be referred to the Reporters or not?
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?
AJAY TEWARI, J. (Oral)
By this petition the petitioners seek issuance of direction to the respondents to refix the pension of pre 01.01.2006 retirees.
All the petitioners in this case are retired Government servants of pre 01.01.2006. Admittedly as per the report of the 06th Pay Commission it had been decided that the pension of all the pre 01.01.2006 retirees would be fixed at 50% of the initial pay and the pension of the petitioners was fixed accordingly. However, the persons who were still in employment Sharma Ashish 2013.10.24 11:23 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh C.W.P. No.25733 of 2012 -2- represented against what they felt was an anomaly in their pay scale. Admittedly the Government of Punjab referred the said claim to the Anomaly Committee and admittedly the Anomaly Committee accepted the claim of the employees. Consequent thereto the letter (Annexure P-4) was issued whereby pay anomaly was removed as a result of which the initial pay also went up. The letter (Annexure P-4) has however stipulated that the benefits would be released only w.e.f. 01.12.2011. The claim in the present petition is that the pension of the petitioners has to be computed in terms of the initial pay now fixed by the letter (Annexure P-4).
The case of the respondents on the other hand is that whatever was the initial pay as on 01.01.2006, the same has been used for computing the pension of the petitioners and the pay scale which was granted w.e.f. 01.12.2011 would not apply to the petitioners.
In my considered opinion, the stand of the State of Punjab is erroneous. The present is not a case where the pay scale was revised but a case where an anomaly in the pay scale was removed (to the benefit of the employees). Once an anomaly is removed the logical effect is that the Government has accepted its mistake and has corrected the same and the anomaly would be held to apply from the date when the mistake occurred. The mere fact that the benefit of the recommendations of the Anomaly Committee were released from a later date would not change the nature of the exercise viz. the correction of a mistake.
Learned counsel for the petitioners on instructions from his clients has stated that though the claim of the petitioners as set out in the Sharma Ashish 2013.10.24 11:23 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Chandigarh C.W.P. No.25733 of 2012 -3- petition was for recomputation of their pension w.e.f. 01.01.2006 yet, since the benefit of the corrected pay scale was given to the employees only w.e.f. 01.12.2011 the petitioners are also willing to accept recomputation of their pension w.e.f. 01.12.2011 and specifically give up their claim for recomputation of their pension w.e.f. 01.01.2006.
In this view of the matter, the petition stands disposed of. The respondents are directed to recompute the pension of the petitioners w.e.f. 01.12.2011 by taking initial pay as was fixed by document (Annexure P-4). Let the necessary exercise of recomputation be made within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order and the benefit of recomputation along with arrears w.e.f. 01.12.2011 be disbursed to the petitioners within a period of two months thereafter. It is made clear that in case the necessary benefits along with arrears are not disbursed to the petitioners within the aforesaid time the petitioners would be entitled to claim the same with interest @ 8% p.a. from the date/s the amount/s fell due till the date of payment/s.
( AJAY TEWARI )
October 22, 2013 JUDGE
ashish
Sharma Ashish
2013.10.24 11:23
I attest to the accuracy and
integrity of this document
Chandigarh