HC: Management change in aided institutions doesn’t affect pension

The Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that the change of management in government-aided private institutions doesn’t affect pension and other benefits to any employee.

The high court has held that mere change in management cannot alter the nature of service or government-aided posts, and so the petitioner could not be put to loss or in a disadvantageous position in this situation.

“Equity and fairness demand that the services rendered by the petitioner in earlier schools against aided post be counted towards calculating pension and all consequential retirement benefits,” the order says.

The judgment came on the petition of a schoolteacher from Yamunanagar in Haryana, who had worked from 1977 to 1979 in a government-aided school and then after obtaining due permission from the management had applied at another aided institution and got selected. His pay scale was protected in 1997 after a protracted correspondence.

The petitioner retired in 2003. However, pension to him was released without taking into account his earlier service period, on the grounds that two schools had different managements. The petitioner moved the high court in 2010, and the court found that the petitioner had been recruited against a sanctioned post, and had he not joined another school, he would have been eligible for pension.

The high court also noted that before switching the job, the petitioner had taken permission from his employer. It held that even though the managements of these schools were different, the petitioner had been recruited against aided posts for which the grants came from the government, and so both posts were pensionable.

The bench of justice Jitendra Chauhan allowed the petition and directed the respondents to count the service rendered by him from 1977 to 1979 for the calculating of pension or and other retirement benefits, that are to be paid within four months.