Beneficial pension schemes can cover special voluntary retirement where qualifying service is completed and exclusion is not express.

Employees who opted for the Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme, 2004 were entitled to pension under the General Insurance (Employees) Pension Scheme, 1995 where the requisite qualifying service under paragraph 14 was completed. The Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme expressly granted pension as a benefit and excluded only the additional notional five years of service, so the pension scheme had to be read contextually with the special scheme. The expression "retirement" in the pension scheme was not confined mechanically to superannuation alone and was construed to include retirement under the special voluntary retirement scheme. As a beneficial pension provision, it was given a liberal interpretation in favour of pension eligibility.

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Issues: Whether employees who opted for voluntary retirement under the Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme, 2004 were entitled to pension under the General Insurance (Employees) Pension Scheme, 1995.

Analysis: The entitlement to pension had to be determined by reading the special retirement scheme together with the pension scheme in their proper context. The special scheme expressly granted pension as one of the benefits and specifically excluded only the additional notional five years of service contemplated by paragraph 30 of the pension scheme. The pension scheme distinguished between superannuation pension and pension on voluntary retirement, but its definition of "retirement" was not to be read mechanically in isolation from the scheme's context. Since paragraph 14 of the pension scheme prescribed ten years of qualifying service for retirement-based pension and nothing in the special scheme showed an intention to exclude its beneficial operation, the expression "retirement" was held to include retirement under the special voluntary retirement scheme as well. The provision being beneficial in nature was to receive a liberal construction.

Conclusion: Employees retiring under the Special Voluntary Retirement Scheme, 2004 were held entitled to pension under paragraph 14 of the General Insurance (Employees) Pension Scheme, 1995 if they had completed the requisite qualifying service.

Ratio Decidendi: A beneficial pension scheme must be construed contextually, and the expression "retirement" may extend beyond the enumerated modes of retirement where the surrounding scheme and object show no intention to exclude employees retiring under a special voluntary retirement scheme.

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