Subordinate judges get pension benefit

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

Judicial officers, whose appointment initially came under scanner after the PPSC cash-for-job scam in 2002, have been granted the benefit of pension.

The judicial officers after their re-appointment by the Supreme Court were deprived of the benefit.

The judicial officers were appointed by the PPSC from 1998 to 2000, but were removed after surfacing of the recruitment scam involving the Punjab Public Service Commission and its chairman Ravinder Pal Singh, alias Ravi Sidhu.

The order of removal was passed by the Administrative Committee after holding that the selections were tainted.

The officers then approached the HC and were given appointment along with all benefits, after their selection was declared non-tainted. The HC moved the apex court against the judgment.

The apex court upheld the High Court order, but made it clear that the judges would not get seniority for the period they had not worked.

The HC turned down their request for pension as per the earlier scheme saying their appointment was after the new pension scheme of 2004. Challenging it, some subordinate judges through senior advocate Gurminder Singh and MS Longia moved the HC. The counsels for the petitioners argued that the appointment of these judges was made between 1998 and 2000. They were re-appointed in 2010 by the HC after finding them non-tainted. The Division Bench of Justice AB Chaudhari and Justice Inderjit Singh quashed the order dated November 16, 2013, vide which their representation to bring them under the pension scheme for general provident fund was rejected in violation of the policy issued by the Finance Department pertaining to employees directly recruited on January 1, 2004, and thereafter and not to the petitioners initially recruited on regular basis in December 2000 after selection in PCS (JB) in 1999 and re-appointed on October 2, 2010.