Policy Decision Restricting Pension Benefits To Employees Retiring After Particular Cut-Off Period Not Illegal: J&K High Court

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court held that The employer is well within its rights to validly fix a cut-off date for introducing any new pension scheme or for discontinuing an existing scheme and same is not violative of Article 14.A bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar & Justice Puneet Gupta said that government took a policy decision to introduce new pension scheme wherein the benefits was given to those who retired after 2014 and those who retired before the date and those who retired afterwards form two separate classesThe court held that article 14 does not apply to non-homogeneous classes and the employees retiring before and after 2014 do not form a single homogeneous classThe court said that a policy decision restricting pension benefits to employees retiring after 2014 is neither arbitrary nor illegal. The court added that the respondent was retired from services in 2010 and the organization non-pensionable at the time of the respondent's retirement.The court relied on The Court cited Union of India vs. S.R. Dhingra (2008) and State of Bihar vs. Ramjee Prasad (1990), which held that Cut-off dates in pension schemes are permissible unless shown to be arbitrary, capricious, or whimsical. BACKGROUND:The respondent was appointed as Manager Administration at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in 1981 and later became its Director. SKICC was initially a government-managed entity but was converted into a registered society under the J&K Societies Registration Act in 1988. The respondent retired on May 31, 2010, but was denied pension benefits since SKICC was not a pensionable organization at the time.In 2014, the Government of J&K issued an order extending pension benefits to SKICC employees, but only for those retiring on or after January 1, 2014.The respondent challenged the order, arguing that denying him pension benefits while granting them to later retirees was discriminatory and violated Article 14 of the Constitution.The Single Judge of the High Court ruled in his favor, striking down the cut-off date as arbitrary and directing the government to grant him pension.The State of J&K appealed the decision, arguing that the cut-off date was valid and not arbitrary.APPEARANCEAbdul Rashid Malik, Sr. AAG with R.A.Jan Sr. Advocate with , Ms Humaira Sajad, Advocate for R-1 Mr. Bikramdeep Singh AAG for R-2. , Government Advocate., Advocate for petitionerfor RespondentsCase-title: STATE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR vs KHURSHEED AHMAD NAQEEBCitation: 2025, Livelaw (JKL) 114Click Here To Read/Download Order

Policy Decision Restricting Pension Benefits To Employees Retiring After Particular Cut-Off Period Not Illegal: J&K High Court

Aleem Syeed

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