Tamil Nadu   

Apex court upholds verdict on pension benefits for govt. staff

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 1. The Supreme Court has upheld a Madras High Court judgment quashing two of four controversial government orders, which sought to curtail pension benefits of thousands of government employees, who retired after March 30, 2003.

While one GO reduced the maximum encashable leave by a superannuating employee to 300 days from the existing 330, another sought to enhance the commutation discount rate from 4 to 8 per cent. A Bench, comprising Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice Arun Kumar, dismissed a special leave petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Government challenging the October 23, 2003 judgment. The High Court verdict came on petitions filed by the Madras High Court Staff Association and others.

The High Court upheld two other orders — one raising the qualifying service period for a government servant to be eligible for full pension from 30 to 33 years, and the other restricting the maximum limit for commutation of the portion of pension to 33.3 per cent, against the prevailing 40 per cent.

The March 2003 GOs also sought to take the last 10-month salary average for computing pension, instead of paying half of the last drawn salary, and only the basic pay and dearness allowance for consideration and not other allowances.

Assailing the judgment, the government, in its special leave petition, said the High Court ought not to have interfered with the two GOs as disbursement of salaries and terminal benefits to the employees soared to very high levels. The SLP prayed for setting aside the impugned judgment and for an interim stay of its operation.

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