Pre-grant service counts toward notional pay fixation and pension, but not salary arrears.

The petitioners—two serving and two retired employees of D.V.S. Polytechnic, an aided institution—challenged the Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension and Other Benefits) Act, 2014, and sought benefits said to follow from the decision in W.P. No. 21216 of 2014.

The Court considered the effect of the subsequent appellate decision in W.A. No. 2476 of 2015 and connected matters, dated 24 July 2026.

1. Whether the petitioners’ service during the period before their posts were admitted to grant-in-aid must be reckoned for notional pay fixation and consequential service benefits.

2. Whether that service entitles the petitioners to arrears of salary or other monetary benefits from the State for the pre-grant period.

The Court applied the Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension and Other Benefits) Act, 2014, whose constitutional validity had been considered in the related proceedings, and relied on the appellate judgment in W.A. No. 2476 of 2015 and connected matters, particularly paragraph 61.

Under the principle stated there, the institution’s management—not the State—is liable for salary and benefits during the non-grant period, while that service may be counted for notional pay fixation from the date the post enters grant-in-aid and for consequential benefits, including pension; no arrears or other monetary benefits are payable by the State for the pre-grant period.

The Court treated the appellate ruling as governing the petitioners’ entitlement.

It adopted paragraph 61’s distinction between reckoning pre-grant service for notional fixation and consequential benefits, on the one hand, and claiming pre-grant salary from the State, on the other.

It therefore directed the authorities to reckon service from the petitioners’ dates of appointment for notional pay fixation and calculation of pension and other service benefits, without directing payment of pre-grant salary arrears.

Respondents 2 and 3 were directed to reckon the petitioners’ service from their respective dates of appointment, including pre-grant service, for notional pay fixation and calculation of pension and other service benefits, and to complete that exercise within six months.

no arrears or other monetary benefits are payable by the State for the pre-grant period