NDLI: The State of Maharashtra & Anr. Vs. Bhagwan & Ors.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Pension: Claim for pensionary benefits by employees of autonomous body
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Pension: Claim for pensionary benefits by employees of autonomous body (WALMI) – WALMI is an independent autonomous body and a society registered under the Societies Registration Act – The administration and management of the WALMI is through its Governing Council – WALMI has its own Rules, namely, WALMI Establishment Rules, 1980, governing the service conditions and the benefits available to its employees – The Rules, 1980 provide for the benefits of travelling allowance, daily allowance, medical reimbursement, house rent allowance etc. however, do not provide for pension – The Governing Council of WALMI also adopted the Maharashtra Civil Services Rules except the Pension Rules – Thus, WALMI is an independent autonomous entity governed by their own Rules and Regulations and the administration and management of WALMI is being run through/by its Governing Council – Even the State is not the Disciplinary Authority of the employees of WALMI – The Government by G.R. dated 08.11.2005 specifically took a policy decision that the employees of aided institutes, boards, corporations, are not entitled for grant of pensionary benefits and the Maharashtra Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1982 shall not be made applicable to such institutions – Even the proposal made by the then Director of WALMI to extend the pensionary benefits to the employees of WALMI was rejected by the State Government – Neither G.R. dated 08.11.2005 nor the decision of the State Government refusing to extend the pensionary benefits to the employees of WALMI was challenged – Therefore, as such a conscious policy decision was taken not to adopt the Pension Rules for the WALMI employees applicable to the State Government employees – In the said facts and circumstances, High Court was not justified in directing the State to extend the pensionary benefits to the employees of WALMI. Pension: Claim for pensionary benefits by employees of autonomous body – The employees of the autonomous bodies cannot claim, as a matter of right, the same service benefits on par with the Government employees – Merely because such autonomous bodies might have adopted the Government Service Rules and/or in the Governing Council, there may be a representative of the Government and/or merely because such institution is funded by the State/Central Government, the employees of such autonomous bodies cannot, as a matter of right, claim parity with the State/Central Government employees – This is more particularly, when the employees of such autonomous bodies are governed by their own Service Rules and service conditions – Pension. Administrative law: Policy decision – Scope of interference by courts – Held: Court should refrain from interfering with the policy decision, which might have a cascading effect and have financial implications – Whether to grant certain benefits to the employees or not should be left to the expert body and the undertakings and the Court cannot interfere lightly – Granting of certain benefits may result in a cascading effect having adverse financial consequences. Autonomous body – The observations made by the High Court that as the salary and allowances payable to the employees of WALMI are being paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the State and/or that the WALMI is getting grant from the Government, there is no justification to treat the employees of WALMI differently than that of the State Government – Further, observations made by the High Court that the amount available with WALMI and deposited with E.P.F. towards the employee’s contribution itself is sufficient to meet the financial liability of the pensionary benefits to the employees and, therefore, there is no justification and/or reasonable basis for the State Government to refuse to extend the benefit of pension to the retired employees of WALMI – Held: These are all irrelevant considerations, so far as extending the pensionary benefits to employees of WALMI is concerned – WALMI has to run its administration from its own financial resources – WALMI has no financial powers of imposing any tax like a State and/or the Central Government and WALMI has to depend upon the grants to be made by the State Government – Further, merely because WALMI has a fund with itself, it cannot be a ground to extend the pensionary benefits – Grant of pensionary benefits is not a one-time payment – It is a recurring monthly expenditure and there is a continuous liability in future towards the pensionary benefits – Therefore, merely because at one point of time, WALMI might have certain funds does not mean that for all times to come, it can bear such burden of paying pension to all its employees – In any case, it is ultimately for the State Government and WALMI to take their own policy decision whether to extend the pensionary benefits to its employees or not – The interference by the Judiciary in such a policy decision having financial implications and/or having a cascading effect is not at all warranted and justified.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice Mukeshkumar Rasikbhai Shah
Neutral Citation	2022 INSC 29
Petitioner	The State Of Maharashtra & Anr.
Respondent	Bhagwan & Ors.
SCR	[2022] 1 S.C.R. 129
Judgement Date	2022-01-10
Case Number	7682-7684

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

The State of Maharashtra & Anr. Vs. Bhagwan & Ors.

Please Log-in to view this content

State of Punjab and Ors. Vs. Gurbaran Singh

R.l. Marwaha Vs. Union of India & Ors.

Union of India & Ors. Vs. Rakesh Kumar & Ors.

Union of India and Ors. Vs. Braj Nandan Singh

State of Maharashtra and Ors. Vs. Ravi Prakash Babulalsing Parmar & Anr.

State of Punjab and Anr. Vs. Jl. Gupta and Ors. Etc. Etc.

Pepsu Road Transport Corporation, Patiala Vs. Mangal Singh and Ors.

The State of Bihar & Ors. Vs. Rajmati Devi & Anr.

Bhagwan Bahadure Vs. State of Maharashtra

The State of Maharashtra & Anr. Vs. Bhagwan & Ors.

The State of Maharashtra & Anr. Vs. Bhagwan & Ors.

Please Log-in to view this content

Similar Documents

State of Punjab and Ors. Vs. Gurbaran Singh

R.l. Marwaha Vs. Union of India & Ors.

Union of India & Ors. Vs. Rakesh Kumar & Ors.

Union of India and Ors. Vs. Braj Nandan Singh

State of Maharashtra and Ors. Vs. Ravi Prakash Babulalsing Parmar & Anr.

State of Punjab and Anr. Vs. Jl. Gupta and Ors. Etc. Etc.

Pepsu Road Transport Corporation, Patiala Vs. Mangal Singh and Ors.

The State of Bihar & Ors. Vs. Rajmati Devi & Anr.

Bhagwan Bahadure Vs. State of Maharashtra

The State of Maharashtra & Anr. Vs. Bhagwan & Ors.