A bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra of the Supreme Court has ruled that an employee’s pension benefits cannot be withheld if their unauthorized absence from work has been considered as extraordinary leave and service is regularised.
Jaya Bhattacharya, who served as a lower division assistant in the Office of the Block Development Officer, Jhargram, West Bengal was appointed in March of 1986. However, she was absent from duty 29 June 1987, to 12 July 2007. According to her she not allowed to discharge her duties and was kept from signing the attendance register. All the while the authorities claimed that she was on unauthorised leave. Several proceedings and litigations followed involving the West Bengal State Administrative Tribunal and the High Court. Finally, in 2011, her absence was labelled as extraordinary leave by the government. Even though her service was regularized, however, she was not granted pension benefits because she of her absence.
The Supreme Court pointed out that even though the concerned authorities were directed to investigate the matter, no formal inquiry had taken place. Therefore, it cannot be left to Bhattacharya to prove that she was prevented from discharging her duties. Also, since her service had been regularized and her absence had been treated as extraordinary leave, her pension benefits cannot be denied on the basis of a break in service. While the apex court ordered the authorities to process her pension benefits within three months, she was told that she would not be entitled to arrears.
