HC Splits OPS Claims of Haryana Employees Into 4 Categories; 3 Categories Win
Old Pension Scheme Haryana: Punjab & Haryana HC splits 46 OPS pension petitions into four categories — ad hoc, pre-2005 recruits and compassionate appointees win; 2006-08 cutoff challengers lose.
North Desk Correspondent
Chandigarh, September 1
Old Pension Scheme Haryana: In a judgment likely to affect hundreds of Haryana government employees fighting for Old Pension Scheme (OPS) benefits, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has sorted 46 connected writ petitions into four distinct categories — dismissing one set of claims outright while granting relief to three others.
The common judgment passed last week disposes of dozens of petitions, all challenging a cut-off date of October 28, 2005 fixed by the Haryana Finance Department for OPS eligibility.
Old Pension Scheme Haryana: What was being fought over
The petitioners’ core grievance was against para 5(i) of an Office Memorandum dated May 8, 2023, issued by the Haryana Finance Department, which set October 28, 2005 as the cut-off date for OPS eligibility. Employees across the state — from police personnel to power corporation staff to general administrative cadres — had moved court seeking either a later cut-off or an exemption based on the specific circumstances of their appointment.
With the consent of all parties, the court took up the petitions together and split them into four categories.
Category I: The cut-off date challenge — dismissed
Old Pension Scheme Haryana: The first and largest point of contention came from employees appointed between January 1, 2006 and August 18, 2008, who argued that since the Haryana New Pension Scheme was notified only on August 18, 2008 — even though made retrospectively effective from January 1, 2006 — that later date should serve as the real cut-off, not October 28, 2005.
The court rejected this outright, holding the matter is no longer res integra (an open question). It relied on a ruling which had already held that the state government is not bound to adopt the same cut-off date as the Centre, and that October 28, 2005 is neither manifestly arbitrary nor a violation of any fundamental right.
The court noted the state’s Finance Department had amended the relevant pension rules on October 28, 2005 itself, before introducing the New Pension Scheme in 2008 with retrospective effect — leaving the court with no compelling ground to disturb the cut-off.
Category II: Part-time, ad hoc employees regularized post-2006 — allowed
Here the court sided with the employees. These were petitioners initially appointed on a part-time, ad hoc, temporary or contractual basis before January 1, 2006, but formally regularized only after that date.
Leaning on a precedent, the court held that the state, “being a model employer,” cannot engage citizens on part-time or contractual terms for decades and then deny them pension benefits on a technicality of when regularization paperwork went through. Continuous long service, the court said, cannot be treated as mere part-time engagement — it counts as qualifying service for OPS.
Category III: Pre-2005 recruitment, post-2006 appointment — allowed
This category covered employees who had applied against advertisements issued before October 28, 2005, but whose actual appointment came through only after January 1, 2006 — often because the original recruitment process was interrupted and revived under a fresh advertisement.
The court held that such continuation processes count as the same recruitment — not a fresh one — and are therefore entitled to the OPS switch-over option.
Category IV: Compassionate and ex-gratia appointments — allowed
The final category dealt with employees appointed on compassionate or ex-gratia grounds following a death-in-harness, where the death itself or the compassionate-appointment claim was initiated before October 28, 2005, even though the formal appointment order came later.
The court held that the vacancy and the claim both predate the cut-off — making the eventual appointment merely the tail end of an already-initiated process. Delay in paperwork, the court said, cannot be held against the claimant.
Six-week timeline set
The court has directed the state government to act within a strict six-week timeline for Categories II, III and IV:
Employees must exercise their option to switch to OPS within six weeks of receiving a certified copy of the order.
The state must then process claims and release consequential pensionary and retiral benefits — including arrears — within a further six weeks.
For Category II specifically, the court has quashed the impugned orders that had excluded pre-regularization service from counting toward pension benefits.
Category I petitioners are left with no relief on the cut-off date question, though the door isn’t fully shut on individual claims that might fall into one of the other three categories.
ALSO: Nurse Did Everything Right. Haryana Made Her Fight Fuel-Austerity Order to Get to Australia
ALSO: Sajjan Kumar & BJP MPs: Now, BJP MPs Visit Sajjan Kumar’s Family
Follow North Desk on WhatsApp for the latest from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7ccdxJENy2H87DBG3E
One Comment