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The Bench of Justices Abdul Nazeer and K. M. Joseph issued notice to the State of Uttar Pradesh while hearing a plea challenging the validity of the Uttar Pradesh Qualifying Service for Pension and Validation Ordinance which was passed in October, 2020. The court also directed a stay on the recovery of pension until further orders.
The Bench said, “Issue notice, returnable in six weeks, in the writ petition as also on the application for stay. In the meanwhile, there shall be a stay of recovery.” This petition was filed by the Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Department Non-Gazetted Employees’ Association, submitting to the court that the Ordinance was passed without curing the exploitative discrimination against the work-charged employees which has been disapproved by the Supreme Court in 2019, according to LiveLaw.
The Supreme Court had earlier in Prem Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh AIR 2019 SC 4390, set aside the relevant rules and read down the provisions for computation of qualifying service for pension and held that the period of service by the work charged employees in state must be counted towards qualifying service for pension. This was accepted and pension was granted to the thousands of aggrieved employees in the state.
However, in the present plea, the petitioners have alleged that after Justice Arun Mishra who delivered the Prem Singh judgment demitted office in September 2020, Uttar Pradesh brought an Ordinance to nullify the above judgment seeking recovery of the pension granted to these Class lll & lV employees.
Senior Advocate Pallav Sisodia, representing the petitioner association contended that that the Ordinance is ultra vires in view of the fact that the enacting Ordinance is made effective retrospectively and nullifies the law declared by the Supreme Court, which would amount to encroaching upon the domain of the judiciary.
He further argued that when any law has been declared by the Supreme Court, the same cannot be set at naught but the legislature, by enacting an amendment which would nullify the effect of the judgement of the court. He added that this Ordinance was brought in by the State to nullify the effect of the judgement rendered by the Supreme Court in the matter of Prem Singh.
The plea also alleges that by means of the impugned Ordinance, the government has provided that “qualifying service” shall only include service rendered on a temporary or permanent post in accordance with the provisions of the service rules prescribed by the government for the post. This is detrimental to work charged employees who do not enjoy a temporary or a permanent post.
“Therefore, by means of the Ordinance, the judgement in Prem Singh has been tried to be diluted because the work charge employees are not employed against any temporary or permanent post in accordance with the provisions of the service rules prescribed by the government for the post. Hence, such services shall not form part of “qualifying services” and the affected employees will miss out on their pension”, the plea stated.
The matter is expected to be heard after 6 weeks.
The order may be read here:
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