Justice Navin Chawla, Justice Shalinder Kaur, Delhi High Court
Notional Date Of Retirement Applicable For Calculating Pension Of BSF Personnel Under Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme: Delhi HC
|The Delhi High Court has clarified that notional date of retirement will be applicable for calculating the pension of BSF Personnel under the Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) Scheme.
The Court allowed the Writ Petition filed by retired Border Security Force (BSF) personnel (Petitioners), directing the authorities to grant them the third financial upgradation under the MACP Scheme. The Court held that the benefits of the enhanced retirement age of 60 years, as held in Dev Sharma v. Indo Tibetan Border Police (2019), should extend to calculating regular service for granting the MACP benefit.
A Division Bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shalinder Kaur held, “Accordingly, we allow the present petition and direct the respondents to place the case of the petitioners before a Screening Committee appointed for evaluating the claim of the officials for the MACP, which would consider the case of the petitioners by treating them to have remained in ‘regular service’ till they attained the age of 60 years, and accordingly process their claims for the grant of the benefit of the 3 rd financial upgradation in accordance with the MACP Scheme.”
Advocate Ankur Chhibber represented the Petitioners, while CGSC Ranvir Singh appeared for the Respondents.
The Petitioners, retired BSF personnel, challenged the rejection of their representations for financial upgradation under the MACP Scheme. They argued that they had completed 30 years of service, but due to their superannuation at 57 years, they were denied the third financial upgradation under the Scheme.
The MACP Scheme, introduced in 2009, grants financial upgradation after 10, 20, and 30 years of regular service. The Petitioners contended that they should be deemed to have been in service until 60 years for calculating benefits under the MACP Scheme, as directed in Dev Sharma (supra).
The High Court referred to its decision in Dev Sharma (Supra), wherein it was held, “However, for the purposes of calculation of retiral benefits, including pension and gratuity, the differential period (in the event of enhancement of the retirement age) will be added to period of service actually rendered by each of them. In other words, their notional date of retirement would be arrived at by adding the differential years to their actual date of retirement. On such calculation they would be entitled to the arrears of retirement benefits after adjusting the amount already paid.”
The Court noted that in Dev Sharma (supra), it had declared discriminatory the retirement age of 57 years for certain Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) ranks. It had directed the enhancement of the retirement age to 60 years for all CAPF personnel, with the differential period between 57 and 60 years being added as notional service for calculating retirement benefits.
Consequently, the Court held, “The said exercise must be completed within a period of three months from today, and in case the petitioners are found entitled to grant of the benefit of the 3 rd MACP, the relief in that regard be released to the petitioners and their pension be accordingly modified with retrospective effect. We clarify that the grant of the 3rd MACP will only be notional and for the purposes of calculating the pension of the petitioners, and that the petitioners will not be entitled to extra pay because of the grant of MACP.”
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Petition.
Cause Title: Jai Singh Saharan & Ors. v. Union Of India & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:9808-DB)
Appearance:
Petitioners: Advocates Ankur Chhibber, Anshuman Mehraotra, Arjun Panwar, Amrit Kaul, Nikunj Arora, Muskaan Dutta and Prahil Sharma
Respondents: CGSC Ranvir Singh