CHANDIGARH: In a relief to the staff of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra and Jalandhar, the Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to implement Central government pension scheme to cover the NIT staff.
With these orders, hundreds of employees of these two NITs, who had joined the institutions before 2004, would now get pension after retirement. Importantly, the staff of the institute was covered under the pension scheme since its inception.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice AK Sikri passed these orders while dismissing an appeal filed by the Union government.
Justice Sikri held, ""The applicability of provisions of Central civil service rules to the employees of NIT, Kurukshetra, and NIT, Jalandhar, is not in dispute. It is on this basis that employees of these institutes, who were appointed prior to January 1, 2004, stand covered by the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972".
The bench, however, allowed two months' time to the authorities to implement these orders.
There are 20 such institutions in the country and most of them were having pension scheme for its staff, except NIT Kurukshetra and Jalandhar.
Earlier, they were known as regional engineering colleges (REC), but were later renamed as NITs by MHRD and declared deemed universities under the NIT Act, 2007. Before re-christening, it was governed by a board of governors.
The employees have been arguing that the board of governors had originally taken a decision on May 9, 1994 for extending pension scheme to the employees of the then REC, but the same was later rejected by MHRD in March 2001.
It was further contended that after enactment of NIT Act, 2007 and its notification, these institutes automatically came under the pension scheme of the Central government, which has the provision of pension for all employees prior to January 2004.
NIT staff eligible for Central government pension: Punjab and Haryana high court
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NIT staff eligible for Central government pension: Punjab and Haryana high court
