Union Of India vs S. R. Dhingra And Others

2. It appears that similar matters were pending before the Delhi High Court, Punjab & Haryana High Court and Central Administrative Tribunal and further proceedings in those cases were ordered to be stayed awaiting the judgment in the matter which was transferred to this Court by the order dated 9.5.2006.

3. The facts of the case are that in the Railways there are certain employees such as drivers, guards, shunters etc, who go along with the railway train and are categorized as Running Staff. Such staffs are entitled to an allowance called Running Allowance which is apart from their salary. Computation of pension after retirement in the railways is made on the basis of average emoluments plus a part of the running allowance which is included in average emoluments in terms of Rule 2544(g) of the Indian Railway Establishment Code. The present dispute relates to the pension for the running staff who retired prior to 1986.

4. Prior to its amendment Rule 2544(g) running allowance upto a maximum of 75% of pay and other allowances was added to the pay for computing pension. Subsequently, by notification dated 5.12.1988 Rule 2544 was amended, and the maximum limit of the running allowance was fixed at 45% of the pay in the revised scale of pay. Thereafter by another amendment this was raised to 55% of the average pay.

5. The validity of this amendment was challenged before the Central Administrative Tribunal by means of a petition which was allowed by the Ernakulam Bench by the order dated 20.4.1990 and the impugned notification was quashed to the extent that the amendment of Rule 2544(g) was given retrospective effect.

9. To implement the aforesaid decision of this Court the Railway Board issued instructions on 14.10.1997 that the pension and other retiral benefits of the railway running staff who retired between 1.1.1973 to 4.12.1988 should be re-computed, and arrears on account of re-computation of pension be paid to them accordingly.

15. The said clarification was challenged by way of an Original Application before the Central Administrative Tribunal by the respondents. On 22.10.2000 the appellants (respondents in OA) contested the original application of the respondents (appellants in OA) before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi by filing their detailed counter reply dated 28.5.2001 in which preliminary objections were also raised regarding maintainability of the original applications. It was pointed out that only the pay was to be notionally fixed as per the OM dated 10.2.1998, and therefore, there was no need to add running allowance again since running allowance would be added only if on the basis of pay so fixed the average emoluments was to be recalculated. The said course of recalculation of average emoluments was specifically excluded by the said OM dated 10.2.1998.

24. We are of the opinion that the benefit of running allowance has to be taken into consideration for computing pension only once. It had been taken into consideration while fixing the pension of the respondents at the time of their retirement. In our opinion it is not required to be taken into account again for any future calculation.

26. In view of the above, we are of the opinion that the benefit of running allowance which has been given to the respondent at the time of retirement is not to be given again vide Office Memorandum dated 10.2.1998.

27. Accordingly Writ Petition No. 4648/2002 which has been transferred to this Court is allowed and the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal dated 22.1.2002 is set aside. This decision will govern all similar matters pending in the High Courts or Tribunal.

28. However, any amount already paid to the respondents and other similarly situated persons shall not be recovered from them.

29. The Transfer Case stands allowed.