CWP No.11187 of 2009 : 1: In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh Date of decision: 02.02.2010 Vas Dev Sharma ... Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ... Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr.Deepak Balyan, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr.RS Kundu, Addl.AG, Haryana. Mr.DK Khanna, Advocate. -- PERMOD KOHLI, J. (Oral): The petitioner in this case was the employee of the Haryana State Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation, a government owned Corporation. The said Corporation was wound up and the surplus employees were ordered to be absorbed in the Revenue Department of the government by a decision of the government. vide circular/letter dated 18.7.1997 (Annexure P-3) to all the Deputy Commissioners in the State except four Districts mentioned therein. One of the stipulations for such absorption was that such employees will not be entitled to any seniority which shall be determined from the date of their joining in the Revenue Department. The petitioner was, admittedly, working as Patwari in the erstwhile Corporation and on account of the government decision, the petitioner was absorbed in the CWP No.11187 of 2009 : 2: Revenue Department. The petitioners have now retired from the State of Haryana on attaining the age of superannuation. The pension case of the petitioner was forwarded to respondent No.4 through his office, who raised certain queries regarding the period of service rendered by the petitioner in the Haryana State Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation. Some of such communications have been placed on record. The petitioner has filed this petition seeing a direction that the period of service rendered by the petitioner in the Haryana State Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation before joining the Revenue Department, be also counted towards qualifying period for pension, gratuity, GPF etc. The respondents in their reply have, however, disputed the claim of the petitioner. It is stated that respondent No.5, Corporation was asked to deposit the CPF amount and the petitioner was also asked to deposit the gratuity etc. obtained from the Corporation. A perusal of the written statement shows that the claim asked for by the petitioner in this writ petition has not been denied at all. The petitioner in his writ petition has specifically mentioned that he is ready and willing to deposit the amount of CPF etc. as per the requirement of law. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length. The issue raised in the writ petition is no more res integra. A similar issue came up for consideration before Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of Employees of the Octroi Branch of the Municipal Committee past service is to be counted for the purposes of granting CWP No.11187 of 2009 : 3: ACP. On consideration of the issue, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of State of Haryana and another Vs. Deepak Sood and others, (Civil Appeal No.4446 of 2008) decided on 15.07.2008, made the following observations:- “Therefore, in the series of judgments given by this Court the view has been taken that in case of a transfer/absorption from one department to another or from public sector to State though the benefit of the seniority may be denied to the incumbent but not for any other benefits like pay fixation and for the pensionary benefits. Therefore, when the benefit of past service rendered in the parent department was given for fixation of pay and pensionary benefits, there is no reason why the past service should not be counted for grant of ACP Grade. Consequently, we are of the view that the view taken by the Division Bench of the High Court in the impugned judgment and order is correct and there is no ground to interfere in this appeal. Consequently, this appeal is dismissed but CWP No.11187 of 2009 : 4: with no order as to costs.” The aforesaid observations are squarely applicable to the facts of the present writ petitions. In view of the above, the petition is allowed and the respondents are directed to consider the period of service rendered by the petitioner in the Haryana State Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation for all intents and purposes except the seniority. However, the grant of pensionary benefits shall be subject to the deposit of CPF contribution, Gratuity etc. in accordance with rules by the petitioner to the respondents or in the alternative, the amount equal to CPF contribution and other payable amount shall be deducted by the respondents from the pensionary/retiral benefits of the petitioner. The pensionary benefits of the petitioner be determined and paid within a period of four months in accordance with law from the date a copy of this order is made available to the competent authority. No costs. 02.02.2010 (PERMOD KOHLI) BLS JUDGE Note: Whether to be referred to the Reporter? NO