In COCP No. 337 of 2007 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CM Nos. 6596-CII of 2008, CM Nos.10398 CII of 2008 and CM No. 4015-CII of 2008 in COCP No. 337 of 2007 Date of Decision: 21.7.2010 Maru Ram .....Petitioner Versus D.S. Jaspal and others ….Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HEMANT GUPTA Present: Shri Deepak Garg, Advocate, for the applicant-petitioner. Shri S.S. Sahu, AAG, Punjab. Hemant Gupta, J. (Oral) The applicant-petitioner herein filed Civil Writ Petition No. 15038 of 2002 along with many other daily wagers/casual workers employed in Zoological Park Chhatbir, Tehsil Rajpura, District Patiala, claiming a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to release the regular pay scale along with dearness allowance from the date juniors to the petitioners were granted the said scale. Vide order dated 7.3.2003, the said writ petition was allowed by this Court with a direction to the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners therein for regularization with effect from the date juniors to them have been regularized. In pursuance of such directions, the respondents passed an order dated 11.11.2004 notionally regularizing the services of the petitioner. Since the petitioner attained the age of 60 years on In COCP No. 337 of 2007 [2] 30.6.2003 i.e. before the date of regularization, it was found that the no pension is admissible to the petitioner as he has not completed 10 years of qualifying service at the time of retirement. It was also pointed out that the death-cum-retirement gratuity and service gratuity has been paid to the petitioner. On the basis of the said statement, the contempt petition was dismissed as withdrawn on 23.11.2007 with liberty to the petitioner to challenge the action of the respondents in declining the claim of the petitioner for pension in appropriate proceedings. Thereafter, the petitioner filed applications bearing CM No. 6596-CII of 2008 claiming interest @ 18% on the amount of Rs.37,151/- paid to the petitioner towards the death-cum-retirement and service gratuity, CM No. 10398-CII of 2008 for direction to pay retiral benefits and CM No.4015-CII of 2009 for direction to pay pension in terms of the decision of this Court in CWP No. 7209 of 2009- Sewa Singh v. State of Punjab & Others. The hearing of the said applications was adjourned sine die in view of the pendency of the Special Leave Petition (C) No. 19713 of 2005-State of Punjab v. Sewa Singh. In the aforesaid case, the question was whether the casual or daily rated employees are entitled to count their period of engagement towards the qualifying service. The aforesaid Special Leave Petition along with other appeals have been allowed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 10.12.2009, while delivering the main judgment in Civil Appeal No. 8036 of 2009 titled as “Bhakra Beas Management Board v. Hari Chand”. The matter has been remitted back to this Court for deciding the question whether daily rated service can be counted for the purposes of qualifying service. In COCP No. 337 of 2007 [3] Since the issue which is relevant and arises in the present case has not been decided and the matter stands remitted to this Court, therefore, it cannot be said that petitioner is entitled to pension. In view of the above, the present applications do not survive. Hence, the same are dismissed. However, it is open to the applicant-petitioner to avail his alternative remedy so as to claim pensionary benefits, in accordance with law. [HEMANT GUPTA ] JUDGE 21-07-2010 ds