State Of Bihar & Ors vs Bihar Pensioners Samaj

The appellants impugn the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Patna which struck down an Act of the State Legislature styled as "The Bihar State Government Employees Revision of Pension, Family Pension and Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (Validation and Enforcement) Act, 2001 (hereinafter referred to as the "Validation Act") on the ground that it was enacted to frustrate, sidetrack and avoid an earlier decision of the High Court.

Apart from pension, the notification also revised Death-cum- Retirement Gratuity but again no revision of Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity was made in respect of Government servants who retired/died in harness on or after 1.1.1986 and up to 28.2.1989. Certain revision was made in dearness allowance, but the same was admissible only with effect from 1.7.1989. An option was given to those who had retired or would be retiring between 1.1.1986 and 30.6.1989 to have their pension and retirement gratuity calculated under the rules in force immediately before coming into effect of the concerned notification.

Another similar writ petition being C.W.J.C. No. 2080/96, which was pending in the Ranchi Bench of the High Court, was dismissed by a learned Single Judge on 10.7.1997. The said judgment was impugned in a Letters Patent Appeal before the Division Bench. During its pendency, the respondent initiated contempt proceedings. The contempt proceedings were closed by a direction of the High Court that non-implementation of the order was due to a bona fide misunderstanding and the State Government was granted three weeks time for implementation of the judgment. The State Government moved a Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 1672/99 before this Court, which was disposed of on 8.3.1999 with a direction that the contempt proceedings would be stayed for a period of three months and the Letters Patent Appeal would be disposed of by the High Court within two months.

On 15.12.2000 the Governor of Bihar was pleased to issue an Ordinance styled as "The Bihar State Government Employees Revision of Pension, Family Pension and Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (Validation and Enforcement) Ordinance, 2000". The said ordinance was subsequently replaced by the Bihar Act 3 of 2001. After referring to the litigative history, the Validation Act purports to validate the revision of pension and gratuity in accordance with the two Resolution Nos. P.C.I.-Id/S7-1853-F and P.C.I. 0-16/87-1854-F of 19.4.1990 giving effect to the effective dates in Paragraphs 1 and 2.1, respectively, of the two resolutions. The respondent- Bihar Pensioners Samaj impugned the Validation Act before the High Court by its writ petition C.W.J.C. No. 11696/2001. The said writ petition was "an exercise on how to destroy the Judgment of Courts established under the Constitution". Hence, this appeal.

The appellants challenged the judgment of the High Court by their Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 209/97 before this Court and this Court was pleased to summarily dismiss the Special Leave Petition on 20.1.1997.

By a judgment dated 21.6.1999 the Division Bench of the Patna High Court allowed the Letters Patent Appeal and set aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge holding: "As the paragraph 1(i) of Resolution No. 1853 dated 19.4.1990 and paragraph No. 2.1 of Resolution No. 1854 dated 19.4.1990 have already been quashed, the question of quashing them again does not arise. The State Government is directed to pay the pension to the pensioners in accordance with the resolutions ignoring paragraphs 1(i) and 2.1 thereof." The judgment of the Division Bench was challenged before this Court in Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 9821/99, which was allowed to be withdrawn and dismissed accordingly.

We see no other contention justifying the striking down of the Validation Act passed by the competent Legislature. At any rate, none has been pointed out to us. Thus, the only argument in favour of the striking down having been found unacceptable, we are of the view that the impugned judgment of the High Court is erroneous and needs to be interfered with.

In the result, we allow the appeal and set aside the impugned judgment of the High Court and declare the constitutionality of the Validation Act. No order as to costs.