B.L. ARORA versus CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, SYNDICATE BANK

Citation: [2008] 6 S.C.R. 762 · Decided: 22-04-2008 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: ARIJIT PASAYAT · Disposal: Dismissed

Judgment (excerpt)

[2008] 6 S.C.R 762 
I 
A 
B.L. ARORA 
', 
... 
v. 
CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, 
SYNDICATE BANK 
(Civil Appeal No. 2904 of 2008) 
B 
APRIL 22, 2008 
(DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT AND P. SATHASIVAM, JJ.) 
Service Law 
.. , 
Syndicate Bank (Employees) pension Regulations, 
1995, Regulation 2410. M. No. 9120169-ECTT dated 26. 8. 1971 
and O.M. No.10147186-SCT(B) dated 10.11.1986 issued by 
the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Pension -
Counting of past service rendered in Army -
Held: An 
D employee of bank is entitled to the benefit of military pension, 
if any, but not entitled to get the military service rendered to !Je 
*-., 
counted as qualifying service for the purpose of pension -
Various communications, as allegedly issued by ~he 
Government of India, also do not throw any light on the aspect 
E of pension. 
Appellant joined short Service Commission in the 
Indian Army and later joined as junior officer in the 
respondent-bank. In the year 2001, he opted for voluntary 
F 
retirement claiming to count the services rendered by him 
in the Army for the purpose of fixation of pension and 
computation of gratuity. The claim was rejected by the 
.._ .. 
authorities in terms of Regulation 24 of the Syndicate Bank 
(Employees) Pension Regulation, 1995. The incumbent 
challenged the order of the authorities by filing a writ 
G petition, which was dismissed by the High Court. Hence 
the present appeal. 
Appellant-employee contended that ti1are was no 
reason/basis to exclude military service wh!le computing 
H 
762 
B.L. ARORA v. CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, 
763 
SYNDICATE BANK 
~ 
the pension when such period of service was counted A 
for the purpose of seniority and scale of pay. 
Respondent-employer submitted that in view of the 
clear stipulation in Regulation 24 of the .Syndicate Bank 
(Employees) Pension Regulations, the claim made by the 
B 
appellant is clearly unacceptable; 
___,,_ 
Dismissing the appeal, the Court 
HELD: 1.1 A bare reading of Regulation 24 of the 
Syndicate Bank (Employees) Pension Regulations, 1995 
makes it clear that an employee is entitled to the benefit c 
of military pension, if any, but the military service is not to 
be counted as qualifying service for pension. Stand of 
the appellant is that because he was serving as short 
commissioned officer he is not entitled to the military 
pension. That in no way makes the position better. The 
D 
~~ 
object of Regulation 24 is clear that the benefit is available 
for rendering service in the military has to be obtained 
from the army, if he is entitled to it. (Para - 7) [765-D,. E, F] 
State Bank of India v. 0. Hanumantha Rao and Anr 
(1998) 6 sec 183 - held inapplicable. 
E 
1.2 A bare reading of the communications of the 
Government, Ministry of Finance, Department of 
Economic Affairs, Banking Division, No.9/20/69-ECTT (C) 
dt. 26.8.1971 and No.10/47/86-SCT(B) dt. 10.11.1986, 
F 
- ,.\ 
goes to show that they relate to only pay fixation and 
seniority and do not throw any light on the pension aspect. 
(Para - 8) [765-G; 766-A] 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 
2904 of 2008. 
G 
From the final Judgment and Order dated 05.04.2005 of 
~-
the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 
5917 of 2003 
Naveen R. Nath for the Appellant. 
H 
764 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2008] 6 S.C.R. 
A 
A.B. Dail, Manish Chauhan, SumatiAnand, Gopal Kumar 
r 
and Raj iv Nanda for the Respondent. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
DR. ARIJIT PASAYAT, J. 1. Leave granted. 
B 
2. Challenge in this appeal is to the order passed by a 
Division Bench of the Delhi High Court dismissing the writ 
,,__ 
petition filed by the appellant. 
3. Background facts in a nutshell are as follows: 
c 
Appellant joined Short Service Commission in the Indian 
Army. There was an advertisement issued by the respondent-
Syndicate Bank (hereinafter referred to as the 'Bank') inviting 
applications for the posts of Junior Officers. Out of the total 
number of posts, 25% posts were reserved for Ex. Emergency 
D Commissioned Officers/Short Service Commissioned Officers. 
Appellant appeared in the written test and was declared 
-j._,. 
qualified. He joined the Bank on 29.3.1976 on being released 
from armed forces. For the purpose of fixation of pay and 
promotion service, rendered by the appellant in armed forces 
E was taken into consideration in view of certain government 
instructions. Appellant opted for voluntary retirement in the year 
2001 

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