Supreme Court Counts Pre-Regularisation Service for Pension Benefits

Substance of service prevails

The Supreme Court has affirmed that service rendered before formal regularisation may count toward retiral and pensionary benefits. The employees had worked for the Punjab School Education Board from the 1990s on contract, ad hoc, daily-wage or work-charged arrangements before being regularised in August 2004.

The Court found that their work was, in substance, continuous and regular. Breaks produced by short-term appointment formats, administrative decisions or litigation could not be used to erase years of actual service.

Not fresh recruits on regularisation

The Board relied on the wording of later appointment letters to argue that the employees entered service afresh upon regularisation. The Court rejected that formalistic approach and upheld the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s direction to compute pre-regularisation service as qualifying service. The ruling is especially relevant where sanctioned work was continuously performed and breaks were not attributable to the employees.