Pay pension to move employees with out discrimination: Madras HC 

By PTI

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu authorities to pay inside six months the pension because of the workers of assorted transport companies within the State with none discrimination.

“I am inclined to allow all these writ petitions in terms of GO dated August 26, 2019. The authorities shall pay the arrears of pension and dearness allowance (DA) to the petitioners as made applicable to the pensioners, who had retired between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2018 with notional effect from January 1, 2016 prospectively with effect from August 28, 2019 within six months,” Justice C Saravanan stated.

The decide was permitting a batch of writ petitions from the Federation of Retired Officers of Transport Corporations by its president S Renganathan of Kottur Garden and 7 different associations, not too long ago.

The petition prayed for a path to the federal government to supply sufficient funds to Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Employees Pension Fund Trust and to implement of the revision of fee of pension to the members of the petitioner Federation, who retired between September 1, 1998 and December 31, 2015 primarily based on the advice of the Seventh Central Pay Commission with a multiplying issue of two.57 as per a GOs dated October 25, 2017 and November 9, 2017 with arrears and curiosity and proceed to pay the revised pension with none interruption.

Allowing the petitions, the decide famous that even when the pension was to be paid from and out of the pension fund, actuality is that the pension fund is being paid and funded by the State authorities as the quantity of pension fund will not be ample to satisfy the necessities.

Therefore, a uniformity needs to be maintained to all the workers who had been drawing pension from and out of the fund which is supported by the federal government contributions.

Having prolonged the advantages to different lessons of pensioners and contemplating the truth that the pension of these pensioners can also be borne by the State authorities, there is no such thing as a justification for discriminating between the pensioners those that retired previous to January 1, 2016.

Further, the State Transport Undertakings had been a part of the State Transport division.

Various Transport departments had been hived off into the separate State Transport Undertakings.

There was a tacit understanding that the salaries and pension of those workers and pensioners can be protected on par with their counterparts in authorities companies.

Therefore, there is no such thing as a foundation for discriminating between the workers of the State Transport Undertakings who’ve retired earlier, the decide stated.

The decide additional stated there is no such thing as a rational foundation to discriminate between the individuals, who belong to the identical class by artificially creating a category between them, who retired on or earlier than January 1, 2016 and people who retired after January 1, 2018.

The advantage of the August 2019 GO needs to be prolonged uniformly. There isn’t any justification in not granting related revisions to these administrative and technical supervisory employees, who’ve retired previous to January 1, 2016.

There can also be no justification in confining the profit to 1 part of the pensioners.

“In the light of the above discussions, I am inclined to allow all these writ petitions in terms of the August 28, 2019 GO,” the decide stated.