Post-2003 State appointees are ineligible for Old Pension Scheme benefits upon subsequent Central Government appointment.

The applicant served as a Pathologist under the State Government of Uttarakhand from 08.12.2004 until 27.12.2012

Following the acceptance of her technical resignation, she joined the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), a Central Government body, on 28.12.2012

Although she was covered under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in Uttarakhand—as the state continued the scheme until October 2005—the respondents rejected her request to count her past service for OPS and pay fixation in ESIC via an impugned order dated 05.08.2020

The applicant contended that her past service should be recognized under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, based on various DoPT Office Memoranda (OMs)

1. Whether an employee who was part of the Old Pension Scheme in a State Government organization after 01.01.2004 is entitled to the same scheme upon joining the Central Government through technical resignation

2. Whether the applicant fulfilled the cumulative eligibility criteria for mobility between State and Central Government services as stipulated in the DoPT OM dated 28.10.2009

The court primarily applied the DoPT OM dated 28.10.2009, which governs the mobility of employees between State and Central Governments.

It establishes two cumulative, mandatory conditions for Old Pension Scheme eligibility: (1) the employee must have been appointed in the State Government on or before 31.12.2003, and (2) the appointment must be covered under a pension scheme similar to the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972

The court also referenced DoPT OMs dated 26.07.2005 and 11.06.2020, which reiterate that counting of past service for pensionary benefits is subject to the cut-off date of 31.12.2003 for initial entry into service

The Tribunal observed that the applicant admittedly entered State Government service on 08.12.2004, which is after the mandatory cut-off date of 31.12.2003

The Tribunal reasoned that the two conditions set out in the OM dated 28.10.2009 are cumulative, not alternative

While the applicant satisfied the second condition (being under an OPS-analogous scheme in Uttarakhand), she failed the first essential condition regarding the date of appointment

The court held that the State Government’s internal decision to extend the OPS beyond the 2003 cut-off cannot override the Central Government’s policy framework or the specific eligibility criteria defined in the relevant OMs for Central Government appointments

The Original Application (OA) was dismissed as being devoid of merit, with no order as to costs