- (1.) HEARD the learned counsel for the parties. The petitioner in this application has prayed for issuance of an order directing the respondents to re -fix the monthly pension of the petitioner reckoning and calculating the period of service from the date of his promotion as an Assistant Teacher by the Government upgraded school, Ragunath Pur which was later taken over by the Government.
(2.) THE petitioner was appointed as an Assistant Teacher in the Raghnathpur High School from 31.1.1946 which was initially a private school managed and run by a Governing Body of the school. The school was taken over by the Government partially on 1.1.1961 and finally on 1.1.1962, together with its assets and liabilities whereafter the teaching and non teaching staff of the school were accepted as government employees/teachers. State Of Jharkhand Through Director General Of Police Versus Thakur Ajit Kumar During the period of his service, the petitioner had passed the departmental examination conducted by the Government and his service condition was also treated to be at par with other Government employees. By treating the period of joining on the post of Assistant Teacher as on 24.1.1956, his pay scale was also fixed. After rendering services for more than 33 years, the petitioner superannuated from service on 31.12.1988. However, though his pension was fixed, but the same was calculated by treating his service tenure from the date of taking over of the school by the Government. The grievance of the petitioner is that the respondents have wrongly taken into account the period of service for the purpose of assessment of pension only from the date of taking over of the management of the school by the Government instead of the date of his initial appointment in the school. Such claim is advanced on the ground that under the provisions of the Rajkiya Madhyamik Vidyalaya Taking over Ordinance 1981, the conditions of service of the teachers who were in service in the school prior to the date of taking over by the Government, they had continued to be governed by the original terms of conditions of service even after the taking over in respect of payment of provident fund, gratuity, pension etc, and as such, the length of service rendered in the school under the private management has to be treated as the total length of service in the Government school.
(3.) SRI Jayprakash Jha, learned senior Advocate for the petitioner while relying upon the judgment of this Court passed in the case of Laljit Bhuiya V/s. Bharat Coking Coal Limited & Others, 2003 2 JLJR 112, would argue that since as per the Government ordinance and various circulars issued from time to time, service conditions of the employees/teachers of the private schools were to continue even after taking over of the management of the schools by the Government, the benefit of service condition including the length of service rendered under the private management has to be counted for the purpose of computing pension of the petitioner.;