While dismissing the petition filed by the employees of Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, the Allahabad High Court has held that in the absence of any specific provision for the General Provident Fund Scheme, petitioners could not be granted the benefit of such scheme only on the ground that the institution became a constituent of Allahabad University.

The petitioners had approached the High Court challenging the denial of the benefit of the pension scheme.

The Single Bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery held, “In the present case also in absence of any specific provision for General Provident Fund Scheme only on ground that institution become constituent of Allahabad University, petitioners cannot be granted benefit of General Provident Fund Scheme since it has to be granted only on basis of relevant provisions which are not applicable in the present case in favour of petitioners.”

Senior Advocate Rahul Sripat Mishra represented the Petitioners while CSC Amrendra Pratap Singh represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The Petitioners were admittedly appointed on different posts in an autonomous institution registered under the provisions of Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860 , namely, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. Being an autonomous institution its finances were catered jointly by Government of India (through ICSSR) and Government of Uttar Pradesh. In the year 2005, the University of Allahabad was conferred status of a Central University. The petitioners were claiming that by virtue of becoming a constituent institution of University of Allahabad they were entitled for all benefits granted to Central University employees including the benefit of pension, i.e., to provide General Provident Fund Scheme instead of Contributory Provident Fund Scheme.

The claim of petitioners was considered and rejected by the University Grants Commission on the ground that the old scheme under CCS Pension Rules was not available to any new entrant.

Arguments

It was the case of the petitioners that they had not been granted the benefit of the pension scheme, whereas other employees who were appointed before the cutoff date of 2005 of the University were getting a pension.

The respondents supported the impugned order that only by virtue of being a constituent institution, petitioners could not be granted the benefit of the pension scheme.

Reasoning

The Bench took note of the fact that even after the institution became a constituent of Allahabad University, it still remained autonomous, and its finances were taken care of by the Central Government independently.

The Bench was of the view that in the absence of any specific provision for the General Provident Fund Scheme, only on the ground that the institution became a constituent of Allahabad University, the petitioners could not be granted the benefit of the General Provident Fund Scheme.

“Therefore also, there is no absolute right that petitioners may be granted benefit of General Provident Fund Scheme. In aforesaid circumstances, since there is no change in constitution of institution even after it become constituent of Allahabad University, as such petitioners claim has no force”, it added.

Thus, finding no ground to interfere with the impugned order, the Bench dismissed the Petition.

Cause Title: Dr. S.K. Pant Professor v. Union of India (Neutral Citation: 2025:AHC:203155)

Appearance

Petitioner: Senior Advocate Rahul Sripat Mishra, Advocate Ishir Sripat,

Respondent: C.S.C. Amrendra Pratap Singh, Advocates Chandan Sharma, Manoj Kumar Singh, Radhey Krishna Pandey, Ram Gopal Tripathi, Ritvik Upadhyay, Shailendra, Shashi Prakash Singh, V.K.Singh

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Allahabad High Court

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.