Daily wagers on TN govt rolls whose services were regularised

The Madras High Court on Tuesday clarified that persons employed by the state government under non-provincialised service, consolidated pay, honorarium or daily wage basis and whose service were regularised before April 1, 2003 shall be entitled for pensionary benefits.

Half of service rendered by them before regularisation shall be counted for the purpose of conferment of pensionary benefits, a full bench comprising Justice R Subbiah, Justice P T Asha and Justice C Saravanan said.

The issue pertains to pleas moved by such state government employees who were denied pension by the government citing government order dated August 6, 2003 which denied pension to those employees appointed after April 1, 2003.

Since two division benches gave conflicting orders as to the eligibility of such employees in getting pension benefits, the chief justice referred the matter to the full bench.

Pronouncing the order on Tuesday, the full bench also clarified that those employees who were hired on temporary basis and regularised after April 1, 2003 were not eligible for the state government pension scheme.

Since 1980, several persons came to be employed on daily wage basis in various departments of the state.

Those daily wage employees joined the service under the belief that their services will be eventually regularised in future and that they could be inducted into the permanent rolls of the government.

Some were fortunate to get their service regularised before March 1, 2003 while others could not till they attained the normal age of superannuation.

For some others, even though they could get their service regularised, at the time of their regularisation, they had very little left in terms of period of service and therefore, after their retirement, from the cadre post, they could not get pension inasmuch as they did not have the minimum qualifying years of service for the purpose of grant of pension.