Antedated regularization prior to October 2007 entitles employees to CGHS benefits as government servants.

The applicant, a Floor Assistant at Doordarshan Kendra, Bhubaneswar, was regularized in service on 26.06.2015.

He was initially issued a CGHS card, but the facility was withdrawn via orders dated 07.11.2023 and 23.01.2024 on the grounds that his appointment was after 05.10.2007, making him a Prasar Bharati (PB) employee rather than a Central Government servant.

During the pendency of this OA, the Tribunal in a separate matter (OA No. 129/2018) ordered the retrospective regularization of the applicant effective from 10.11.1995 for the purpose of qualifying service for pension under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.

The respondents complied with this order on 10.12.2025 but continued to deny CGHS benefits, arguing that CGHS is not part of the pension scheme.

1. Whether the applicant, whose regularization was antedated to 10.11.1995, remains a Prasar Bharati employee recruited after 05.10.2007 for the purpose of medical facilities.

2. Whether the antedating of regularization, even if specified for pensionary benefits, entitles the applicant to CGHS facilities.

Section 11(5) of the Prasar Bharati Act (as notified on 09.01.2012), which stipulates that employees recruited after 05.10.2007 are employees of the Prasar Bharati Corporation and not the Central Government.

The Prasar Bharati medical policy dated 22.11.2016.

CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, and the legal effect of retrospective regularization orders that shift an employee’s status to a date prior to the statutory cut-off for corporate employment.

The respondents contended that the applicant was a corporate employee because his formal appointment letter was issued in 2015, and the retrospective regularization to 10.11.1995 was strictly for pension purposes, excluding CGHS.

The Tribunal rejected this reasoning, observing that once the applicant's regularization was legally antedated to 10.11.1995, he could no longer be classified as an employee "recruited after 05.10.2007" under the Prasar Bharati Act.

Since the primary justification for withdrawing CGHS was his status as a post-2007 recruit, the antedating of his service effectively nullified that status.

The Tribunal concluded that his historical status as a government servant (by virtue of the 1995 regularization) makes him eligible for the CGHS scheme.

It held that the applicant is eligible to be covered under the CGHS scheme due to his antedated regularization to 10.11.1995.

The respondents were directed to extend the benefit of the CGHS scheme to the applicant immediately.

No costs were awarded.