The Bombay High Court has held that 50% of part-time librarian service rendered on an aided post prior to 01 November 2005 must be reckoned towards qualifying service under Rule 57 Note 1 of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1982, irrespective of subsequent upgradation as full-time librarian after the DCPS cut-off date. The Court also pointed out that the date of initial appointment on a part-time aided post is treated as the date of entry into service for pension purposes, and the mere fact that the employee was upgraded to full-time after the 01 November 2005 DCPS cut-off date does not disqualify him from the Old Pension Scheme.
Rule 19 of the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1981 read with the MCS (Pension) Rules entitles employees of aided schools working on full-time basis to pension in accordance with Government-sanctioned rules, and the G.R. dated 31 October 2005 introducing DCPS applies only to those recruited on or after 01 November 2005, clarified the High Court.
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The Division Bench comprising Justice G. S. Kulkarni and Justice Aarti Sathe noted the admitted facts that the petitioner was initially appointed on 12 June 1995 as a part-time librarian on an aided post in a school with more than 1000 students, his appointment was approved by the Education Officer, and he continued on the part-time post for almost 10 years before being absorbed as a full-time librarian on a fully aided post under the G.R. dated 03 August 2006. The petitioner thus worked for almost 30 years in a fully aided school.
The Court examined Section 4 of the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Regulation Act, 1977 (MEPS Act), Rule 19 of the Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1981, and Rules 30, 31, 33, 38, 57, 100, and 110 of the Maharashtra Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1982 (MCS (Pension) Rules). The Court observed from a conjoint reading of Section 4 read with Rule 19, that an employee of an aided school, working on a full-time basis and retiring on or after the cut-off date specified in the said Rule would become entitled to pension in accordance with the rules as sanctioned by the Government specifically to the employees of private schools, and the grant of pension would stand governed by the MCS (Pension) Rules.
The Court further observed that Rule 57 Note 1 of the MCS (Pension) Rules provides that in case of employees paid from contingencies who are subsequently brought on a regular pensionable establishment by conversion of their posts, one-half of their previous continuous service shall be allowed to count for pension.
Briefly, the petitioner, Dadasaheb Sada Kadam, was appointed as a part-time librarian on 12 June 1995 in Swami Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Yesgaon Bk., Taluka Malegaon, District Nashik, a 100% aided secondary school with more than 1000 students. His appointment was approved by the Education Officer (Secondary), Zilla Parishad, Nashik, by a communication dated 08 November 1995, and he was made permanent on the part-time post on 12 June 1998, which was also approved by the Education Officer.
The State Government issued a Government Resolution dated 03 August 2006 for upgradation of 924 part-time librarian posts to full-time librarian posts in non-Government aided secondary schools with student strength exceeding 1000, where such employees had served for more than five years. Clause 4 of the said G.R. stipulated that such appointment would be a fresh appointment with a probationary period of two years, and Clause 5 stipulated that the 924 full-time posts were being created by upgradation from the financial year 2006-07, with salary admissible from 01 April 2006.
In pursuance of the G.R. dated 03 August 2006, the Education Officer (Secondary), Zilla Parishad, Nashik, issued an appointment order dated 07 March 2007 appointing the petitioner as a full-time librarian, which was duly accepted by the petitioner. The State Government had earlier issued a G.R. dated 31 October 2005 adopting the Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (DCPS) replacing the old pension scheme for Government servants recruited on or after 01 November 2005. Since the petitioner’s date of appointment as full-time librarian (01 April 2006) fell after the cut-off date of 01 November 2005, respondents nos. 3 and 4 held him to be not entitled to be governed by the Old Pension Scheme.
The petitioner contended that the cut-off date of 01 November 2005 would not apply to him inasmuch as he was in service on the post of part-time librarian from 12 June 1995 on an aided post, and the G.R. dated 03 August 2006 did not provide that his earlier service from 12 June 1995 till 31 March 2006 should be discarded for the purpose of pension.
