Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 27: High Court has dismissed the plea of cops in Jammu and Kashmir Police seeking their services to be deemed under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) keeping in view the date of process of recruitment and not on the date of issuance appointment orders.
The J&K Police vide Advertisement Notification dated 29.01.2009, invited applications from the eligible permanent residents of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir for the posts of Sub-Inspector (SI) in the Executive Wing of J&K Police.
The petitioners, being eligible, participated in the selection process, which culminated with the issuance of the select list on 10.10.2010 after the date the New Pension Scheme (NPS) was in vogue. Upon completion of the requisite formalities, formal orders of appointment were issued in their favour.
They approached the court to seek their services be governed by OPS and not NPS on the ground that service rights, including those governing pension and other post-retiral benefits, get crystallized with reference to the date on which the process of recruitment commences and not on the date on which the formal appointment is made after selection.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar while refusing to entertain and accept the plea of the cops who were appointed as Sub-Inspectors in the department said, the selection process stood concluded prior to 01.01.2010 the date on which the NPS was promulgated and implemented in the entire the then State, but the formal orders of appointment got delayed because of the time taken by the appointing authorities in verification of their documents and character antecedents.
The court has held that the date of commencement of the selection process is not the date on which the service rights of candidates, who after participating in the selection process get appointed, stand crystallized. The relevant date to determine the service rights of such candidates is the date of their appointment i.e the date on which a candidate becomes a member of the service.
“The service conditions of an employee cannot be made static and unalterable qua such employee till his retirement, and even post retirement. An employee appointed to Government service is not guaranteed a particular set of service conditions, including his post-retiral benefits”, read the judgment.
The court further added that the Government is well within its rights to alter the service conditions of its employees from time to time. The order of appointment issued in favour of a Government employee invariably provides that the appointment shall be governed by the terms and conditions of appointment and the service conditions laid down by the Government from time to time.
The bench recorded that the rules of eligibility and the mode and method of recruitment, as were in-vogue at the commencement of selection process, would govern the selection, and subsequent changes therein would not affect the pending selection. This is a well-settled and unexceptionable legal position.
Raising the delay in selection process to issuance of appointment order by the aggrieved cops, the court said that the selection process was initiated on 29.01.2009, which consisted of various stages to be undertaken by the respondent-department for selection and appointment of Sub-Inspectors with consisted physical measurement test, outdoor tests, written examination and viva voce /personal assessment test.
“The conclusion of selection process with the issuance of select list on 10.10.2010, therefore, cannot be said to be so inordinate as to warrant pre-dating the appointment of the petitioners to the date anterior to 01.01.2010”, the court answered.
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