Patna High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Nilu Agrawal, J. while hearing a civil writ petition ruled that the date of appointment of an employee is the date when he is incorporated into the cadre of his service, and not the date of advertisement under which he was employed.
The instant petition was filed seeking quashing of order by which petitioner was communicated that he was going to superannuate under the New Pension Scheme. In pursuance to Advertisement No. 01 dated 23-11-2004, petitioner had applied for the post of 4th grade employee, but his appointment could be made only on 06-12-2007.
Petitioner’s contention was that since the advertisement, under which he was recruited, pertained to the year 2004, old rules would be applicable to him and he could not be treated to be covered under the New Pension Scheme, which was effective with effect from 01-09-2005.
Counsel on behalf of the respondent submitted that since the petitioner was appointed in the year 2007 and the New Pension Scheme came into force in 2005, he would automatically be covered under the New Pension Scheme.
The Court observed that it had been held by a number of decisions of this Court as well as the Apex Court that the date of appointment of an employee would be the date when he is incorporated in the cadre. Therefore, it was held that as the petitioner was appointed in the year 2007, he could not have claimed the benefit of Old Pension Scheme. Thus, the petition was dismissed.[Arun Kumar Verma v. State of Bihar, 2018 SCC OnLine Pat 2178, decided on 07-12-2018]