Judgment On Govt Employees' Entitlement To Increment Earned A Day Before Retirement : Supreme Court Clarifies Date Of Application

The Supreme Court has passed an interim order making certain important clarifications regarding the application of its judgment in the case The Director (Admn and HR) KPTCL & Others vs CP Mundinamani and others which held that government employees are entitled to the increment which they earned on the previous day of their retirement.

The judgment was delivered by two-judge bench on April 11, 2023.

On September 6, another two-judge bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar, acting on certain miscellaneous applications seeking clarifications, passed the following directions.

(a) The judgment dated 11.04.2023 will be given effect to in case of third parties from the date of the judgment, that is, the pension by taking into account one increment will be payable on and after 01.05.2023. Enhanced pension for the period prior to 30.04.2023 will not be paid.

(b) For persons who have filed writ petitions and succeeded, the directions given in the said judgment will operate as res judicata, and accordingly, an enhanced pension by taking one increment would have to be paid.

(c) The direction in (b) will not apply, where the judgment has not attained finality, and cases where an appeal has been preferred, or if filed, is entertained by the appellate court.

(d) In case any retired employee has filed any application for intervention/impleadment in Civil Appeal No. 3933/2023 or any other writ petition and a beneficial order has been passed, the enhanced pension by including one increment will be payable from the month in which the application for intervention/impleadment was filed.

This interim order will continue till further orders of the Court. However, it was clarified that no person who has already received an enhanced pension including arrears, will be affected by the directions in (a), (c) and (d)

The bench passed these interim directions to prevent any further litigation and confusion. It also noted that a review petition filed by the Union Government against the judgment is pending.

The matter will be re-listed in the week commencing from November 4.

Click here to read the order