Shakuntla Devi vs State Of Himachal Pradesh And Ors

Sandeep Sharma, J

By way of present petition, petitioner has prayed for following main reliefs:

"(a) That the respondents may very kindly be directed to consider the services rendered by the applicant on contract basis as Junior Basic Trained Teacher from 1996 to 2005 as qualifying service for pensionary benefits and consider her case for grant of pension forthwith without any further delay and within time as deemed fit by this Hon'ble Court, with further directions to start paying pension to the applicant and further to calculate and pay arrears of pension.

(b) That further directions may be given to the respondents to grant other pensionary benefits also, to the applicant in accordance with law."

Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused material available on record, this Court finds that petitioner was appointed as Junior Basic Teacher on contract basis w.e.f. 22.2.1996 and thereafter, services of the petitioner were regularized with the Department on 4.6.2005. It is also not in dispute that petitioner from the date of her initial appointment on 22.2.1996 continued to serve the department uninterruptedly without there being any break till her regularization.

Precisely, the claim of the petitioner is that services rendered by her w.e.f. 22.2.1996 as JBT on contract basis till her regularization on 4.6.2005 are required to be taken into consideration by the department while computing qualifying service for the purpose of consequential benefits i.e. pensionary benefits and annual increment etc.

Parties are ad-idem that aforesaid question has been elaborately dealt with by the Division Bench of this Court vide judgment dated 26.12.2019,titled Smt. Sheela Devi v. State of HP and Ors in CWPOA No. 195 of 2019 (further followed by this Court vide judgment dated 1. 1.2020 in CWP No. 3267 of 2019 titled Ram Krishan Sharma v. The Accountant General (A&E) HP and Ors), wherein it has been concluded that services rendered even prior to regularization in any capacity be it work-charged employees, contingency paid fund employees or non-pensionable establishment have to be counted towards qualifying service even if such service is not preceded by temporary or regular appointment in a pensionable establishment.

In the aforesaid judgment, this Court has already held that no discrimination can be made qua the employees, who rendered services prior to regularization in the capacity of contractual employees and were regularized only because they had put in the requisite number of years of service on contractual basis like their counterparts who had rendered services in the capacity of work charged employees, contingency paid fund employees or non- pensionable establishment, of course, for that matter even on ad-hoc basis.

Learned counsel placed reliance upon judgment 14.9.2010 dated passed by this Court in CWP(T) No. 6785 of 2008 titled Narender Singh Naik v. State of HP and Ors (further upheld by the Division Bench of this court in LPA No. 271 of 2011), wherein respondents were directed to consider the case of the applicant for counting the period he has worked on contract basis till regularization with all consequential benefits in view of the principles laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in case titled Direct Recruit Class II Engineering Officers Association v. State of Maharashtra and Ors (1990) 2 SCC 715.

Since question needs to be adjudicated in the instant proceedings has been elaborately dealt with and decided by the Division Bench of this court in Smt. Sheela Devi and Narender Singh Naik's case (supra), this Court sees no reason to go into this question again, especially when all the facts and relief, as prayed for, in the instant petition are identical to that of aforesaid case.

Consequently, in view of the aforesaid, present petition is allowed making the judgment passed Smt. Sheela Devi's Case and Narender Singh Naik's case supra mutatis mutandi applicable, also to the present petition. Petition stands disposed of accordingly.