J.L.GUPTA, J. - (1.) THE 24 petitioners herein were the employees of the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar. They retired from the service of the Corporation on different dates from November 30, 1979 to June 30, 1992. They pray for a direction to the respondents to grant them pension "without reference to their date of retirement and that no interest should be claimed from them on the amount of refund which they have to make to the Corporation. . . . . "
(2.) HITHERTOFORE , the employees of the Corporation were governed by a Scheme of Contributory Provident Fund. There were persistent demands for grant of pension. As a result, in December 1989, the Punjab Government decided to introduce a Pension Scheme for the Municipal employees" who retire after April 1, 1990. " A copy of the news item that appeared in the Daily Tribune dated December 17,1989 has been produced as Annexure P-4 with the Writ petition. After further deliberations and consideration of the matter, the Government finally published the Rules called "the Punjab Municipal Corporation Employees Pension and General Provident Fund Rules, 1994. ' These rules were published in the Punjab Government Gazette of July 29, 1994. Mr. R. S. Bindra, learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that every municipal employee is entitled to the grant of pension irrespective of his date of retirement and that the provision in the rules for refund of "the Corporation's contribution towards their Contributory Provident Fund including interest thereon received by them together with simple interest on the whole amount at the rate of 10% per annum from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment," is unjust and unfair.
(3.) FOR a proper consideration of the submission, it is apt to notice the provisions contained in Rule 1. It provides as under: "1. Short title, commencement and application - (1) These rules may be called the Punjab Municipal Corporation Employees Pension and General Provident Fund Rules, 1994. (2) They shall be deemed to have come into force on and with effect from the first day of April 1990 in the case of employees who are members of the provincialised service of a Corporation, and in the case of employees who are members of a non-provincialised Service of a Corporation, they shall come into force from such date, as the concerned Corporation may, determine, by a resolution passed in this behalf. (3) They shall apply to the employees of the Corporations- i) who are appointed on or after the first day of April, 1990 on whole time regular basis; an d ii) who were working immediately before the first day of April 1990 on whole time regular basis and opt for these rules; Provided that the employees who were working immediately before the first day of April 1990 and who retired during the period between the first day of April 1990 and the date of publication of these rules in the Official Gazette, shall have the option to opt for these rules within a period of four months from the date of publication of these rules, subject to the condition that they shall have to refund the Corporation's contribution towards their Contributory Provident Fund including interest thereon received by them together with simple interest on the whole amount at the rate of ten percent per annum from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment. (4) They shall not apply to the employees, whoa) Opt out of these rules : b) are members of All India Service or Punjab Civil Service. c) are paid out of contingencies ; d) are work-charged employees ; e) are employed after superannuation; f) are employed on contract basis, except when the contract provides otherwise; an d g) are specifically excluded wholly or partly from the operation of these rules. " ;