Uttarakhand High Court: Person Reappointed After Superannuation To Post Of Chairman & Member Of Cooperative Tribunal Entitled To Revised Pension

The petitioners had approached the High Court seeking a mandamus directing the respondent authorities to revise all their post-retirement benefits.

The Single Bench of Justice Alok Mahra held, “On careful perusal of proviso (ii) of Rule 271 and proviso (4) of Rule 272 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004, the grounds taken by the State Counsel cannot be sustained, as proviso (ii) of Rule 271 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004 clearly provides that a person, who retires from the post of Chairman and Member of the Tribunal, is entitled to additional pension, gratuity and post retirement leave encashment, which shall be recalculated as per the proviso (ii) of Rule 271 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004, which have already been averted to in the preceding paragraph.”

Advocate Sandeep Kothari represented the Petitioners while Additional Chief Standing Counsel P.S. Bisht represented the State.

Factual Background

The case set up by the petitioners was that the first petitioner was superannuated from the services of I.A.S. in the year 2008, while the second petitioner superannuated from the post of Additional Registrar, Cooperative Societies, in the year 2010. They were appointed as Members in the Uttarakhand Cooperative Tribunal and completed their tenure up to the age of 66 years. It was their case that the Members of the Cooperative Tribunal are entitled to pension and gratuity and that the pension, gratuity and other post retiral benefits have to be revised/refixed in accordance with the services as the Member of the Cooperative Tribunal, inasmuch as, the petitioners in capacity of I.A.S. and Additional Registrar respectively have already received the gratuity, pensions and other benefits, but the same was not taken into consideration.

Arguments

It was the case of the State that Rule 271 of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004 would apply only to those persons who have not been superannuated and, before their superannuation, have joined as Members of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Tribunal and would not apply to those Members who were reappointed after their superannuation from their parent department.

Reasoning

Referring to Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004, the Bench explained that the proviso (ii) of Rule 271 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004 provides that a person, who retires from the post of Chairman and Member of the Tribunal, is entitled to additional pension, gratuity and post retirement leave encashment, which have to be recalculated as per the proviso (ii) of Rule 271 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004. The Bench also refused the accept the State’s contention.

The Court, was thus of the opinion, that the petitioners are entitled to revised pension and the services rendered by them as Members of the Cooperative Tribunal shall be taken into account for recalculating their pension and other retiral benefits, which shall also be recalculated in light of proviso (ii) of Rule 271 of Uttarakhand Cooperative Societies Rules, 2004, within a period of 12 weeks’ from the date of production of the certified copy of this order.

“It is made clear that petitioners’ pension and other retiral dues would be recalculated only for the period, for which, they have served as Members of the Uttarakhand Cooperative Tribunal”, the Bench ordered.

Cause Title: Tarkendra Vaishnav v. State of Uttarakhand (Neutral Citation: 2025:UHC:7490-DB)

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