SC Clarifies Applicability of Judgment on Government Employees’ Entitlement to Increment Earned on Previous Day of Retirement

In a recent order, the Supreme Court (SC) of India made certain important clarifications about the applicability of the top court’s judgment in the Director (Admn and HR) KPTCL & Others vs. CP Mundinamani and others (April 11, 2023) case. In this case, the apex court held that government employees are entitled to the increment they earned on the previous day of their retirement. The bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar passed the following directions to prevent any further litigation and confusion.

1. “The judgment dated 11.04.2023 will be given effect to in case of third parties from the date of the judgment, that is, the pension by taking into account one increment will be payable on and after 01.05.2023. Enhanced pension for the period prior to 31.04.2023 will not be paid.
2. For persons who have filed writ petitions and succeeded, the directions given in the said judgment will operate as res judicata, and accordingly, an enhanced pension by taking one increment would have to be paid.
3. The direction in (B) will not apply, where the judgment has not attained finality, and cases where an appeal has been preferred, or if filed, is entertained by the appellate court.
4. In case any retired employee has filed any application for intervention/impleadment in…any other writ petition and a beneficial order has been passed, the enhanced pension by including one increment will be payable from the month in which the application for intervention/impleadment was filed.”

Further, the bench said “This interim order will continue till further orders of this Court. However, no person who has already received an enhanced pension including arrears, will be affected by the directions in (A), (C), and (D). The SC then re-listed the matter for hearing in the week commencing November 04, 2024.