Work-charge service period must be considered for calculating retirement benefits of regularized employees.

The writ petition was originally filed by an employee (now deceased and substituted by his son) of the Public Health Engineering Department.

The petitioner was appointed as a daily wager on 01.08.1981 and absorbed into the work-charge establishment on 25.04.1988.

Following multiple rounds of litigation regarding reversions between work-charge and daily wager status, his service was finally regularized on 20.06.2014.

He superannuated on 26.12.2017.

The petitioner challenged the calculation of his retiral benefits, contending that the respondents failed to count his service rendered under the work-charge establishment since 1988 for pensionary purposes.

1. Whether the past services rendered by the petitioner under the work-charge establishment should be counted for the purpose of calculating pension, gratuity, and other post-retiral benefits.

2. Whether the petitioner is entitled to a revision of pensionary benefits in light of recent Finance Department resolutions and judicial precedents concerning work-charge employees.

Policy decision of the State Government under Resolution No. 10710 dated 17.10.2013 regarding regularisation.

Finance Department Memo No. 5943 dated 25.06.2026, which mandate the counting of work-charge service for pensionary benefits as per the judgment in Saita Ram Thakur Vs. The State of Bihar Ors [CWJC No. 3620 of 2014], affirmed in SLP No. 29800/2024.

The petitioner argued that although he was regularized in 2014, his long-standing service in the work-charge establishment since 1988 was arbitrarily excluded from his pension qualifying service.

The State contended that as per Resolution No. 10710, the petitioner was only entitled to benefits from the date of regularization.

The court observed that the legal landscape regarding work-charge employees had shifted due to recent Supreme Court rulings and the State’s own Finance Department Memo dated 25.06.2026.

The court reasoned that since the Government has now accepted the principle (via Memo No. 5943) that such employees are entitled to benefits based on their prior service, the petitioner’s claim required a fresh determination by the executive authorities in light of these specific developments.

The respondent is ordered to take a fresh decision within eight weeks of receipt of the order. The writ petition was disposed of with these directions.