Prospective pension benefit limit upheld for Project Casual Labour, with pre-1.1.1981 service excluded from retiral counting.

Project Casual Labour absorbed on regular temporary or permanent posts before 1.1.1981 were not entitled to count pre-1.1.1981 casual service for pension and other retiral benefits. The Court held that the earlier concession for counting part of pre-absorption service applied only to labour who had already attained temporary status, and Project Casual Labour acquired that status only under the later scheme effective from 1.1.1981. The Article 14 challenge failed because the benefit was a new, prospective scheme limited to those within its temporal scope, so the principle in D.S. Nakara did not apply. The contrary Tribunal view was set aside.

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Issues: Whether Project Casual Labour absorbed on regular temporary or permanent posts before 1.1.1981 were entitled to count service rendered as Project Casual Labour prior to that date for pension and other retiral benefits, and whether denial of that benefit was discriminatory under Article 14.

Analysis: The benefit of counting a part of service rendered before regular absorption was first extended to casual labour who had attained temporary status under the Railway order dated 14.10.1980. Project Casual Labour did not have temporary status until the scheme approved in Inder Pal Yadav, under which such status became available only from 1.1.1981 and thereafter according to the staged scheme. Before that scheme, Project Casual Labour could not claim temporary status, and the earlier concession could operate only after that new status was conferred. The challenge under Article 14 failed because the new benefit was introduced prospectively from a defined date and the doctrine in D.S. Nakara did not apply to a newly conferred benefit available only from that date.

Conclusion: Project Casual Labour who were absorbed before 1.1.1981 were not entitled to count their earlier Project Casual Labour service for retiral benefits, and the contrary Tribunal view was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The Railway Administration's appeals succeeded and the employees' appeals failed, restoring the denial of pensionary weightage for pre-1.1.1981 Project Casual Labour service.

Ratio Decidendi: A new service benefit conferred prospectively from a specified date can validly be limited to employees who acquire the qualifying status under that scheme, and denial of the benefit to those outside its temporal scope does not by itself violate Article 14.

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