CAT Orders Old-Pension Benefits On Retirement For Postal Chowkidar Hired After 1993 Cut-Off, Citing 32 Years’ Service

The applicant was appointed as a Contingency Paid (CP) Chowkidar at Sub Post Office Dakor by appointment letter dated 5 February 1994 and joined on 11 February 1994.

He continued in that post, but the Department refused temporary status and regularisation because his appointment post-dated the 1 September 1993 cut-off.

He challenged rejection orders dated 12 March 2013 and 12 December 2023 in two applications, which the Tribunal heard together.

The applicant relied, among other things, on Rule 154(a) of the Manual of Appointments and Allowances of Officers of the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department and sought service benefits, including pensionary benefits.

Rule 154(a) of the Manual of Appointments and Allowances of Officers of the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department provides that specified categories of whole-time contingency-paid staff, including Chowkidars, who work alongside regular employees should be brought onto the regular establishment and treated as “regular employees”.

Under Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Umadevi (3), the one-time regularisation measure concerns irregularly appointed employees who meet the stated conditions, including ten years’ continuous service in a duly sanctioned post without court protection; State of Karnataka v. M.L. Kesari clarifies that eligible employees omitted from an earlier exercise remain entitled to consideration.

The Tribunal also relied on Narendra Kumar Tiwari v. State of Jharkhand and other authorities concerning long-serving temporary or irregular employees.

The Tribunal accepted that the applicant was appointed after the Department’s cut-off and therefore had not been granted temporary status under the scheme applicable to earlier recruits.

It nevertheless emphasised that he had served continuously for approximately 32 years, performed the duties of a CP Chowkidar, and received the post’s salary regularly; it also noted that earlier CP Chowkidars had received pensionary benefits following deemed regularisation under Rule 154(a).

In view of the long service and the treatment of those comparators, the Tribunal found that denying the applicant future social security would be unjustified.

Because the CP Chowkidar post was a dying-cadre post, however, it declined to direct regularisation or grant temporary status and confined the relief to pensionary benefits.

It directed the respondents to extend Old Pension Scheme benefits to the applicant after he attains the age of superannuation, but expressly found no need to direct the grant of temporary status or regularisation.

No costs were awarded.