LAHORE – Relief for government employees who spent years working on temporary or contractual appointments before getting regular status as Lahore High Court recent ruling clears the air on pension entitlement.
The court held that contractual and temporary service rendered before regularisation can be counted towards pension, meaning an employee cannot simply be denied pension rights because the initial years of service were performed on a contract basis.
A two-member bench led by Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir and Justice Syed Ahsan Raza Kazmi dismissed intra-court appeal filed by the Punjab government and upheld the earlier decision in favour of the employee’s family. The ruling came in a case involving the widow of a deceased Health Department employee, who had approached the court for pension and gratuity after the District Accounts Office Khanewal raised an objection over his qualifying service.
The accounts office had treated the employee’s service as being less than 10 years, creating a hurdle in the payment of pension benefits. The court took a different view, ruling that the employee’s continuous contractual service could not simply be ignored when determining his pension entitlement, particularly because his service was subsequently regularised.
The court made it clear that the word “contract” alone cannot be used as a reason to strip an employee of lawful pension rights. Where an employee has continuously served the government and is subsequently regularised or made permanent, the period served before regularisation may be taken into account for pension purposes, subject to the applicable service and pension rules.
The bench also held that government policies or appointment conditions cannot automatically override an employee’s lawful pension rights. Such provisions must be examined in accordance with the law.
In the case before the court, the widow was seeking pension and gratuity following the death of her husband, a Health Department employee. The department’s objection was essentially based on the argument that the employee did not have the required period of qualifying service.
The court rejected that position and ordered the release of pension and gratuity to the widow, after taking into account the employee’s continuous service.
Lahore High Court also referred to a legal principle established by Supreme Court under which contractual employment can, in certain circumstances, fall within the scope of temporary service. The court therefore ruled that the nature, continuity and subsequent status of the employee’s service must be examined instead of relying solely on the label of “contract employee”.
The decision becomes important for government employees across Punjab who spent several years working on contractual appointments before being regularised. However, the ruling does not mean that every contract employee will automatically qualify for pension.
The employee’s individual service record, continuity of employment, subsequent regularisation and the pension laws and rules applicable to the case will remain crucial. For employees whose contractual service was excluded from pension calculations despite subsequent regularisation, however, the judgment could provide a stronger legal basis for challenging such decisions.
The ruling also puts the spotlight on government departments and accounts offices responsible for calculating pension benefits, particularly in cases where years of continuous contractual service have previously been excluded.
For families of deceased government employees, the decision could prove especially significant where pension claims have been rejected because the deceased employee was considered to have fallen short of the required qualifying service.
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