Daily Wage Employees Entitled to Pension: MP High Court Ruling

The Madhya Pradesh High Court (Jabalpur Bench) has issued a significant directive to the state government. Daily wage employees who were later regularized and had worked on monthly wages for 15 years or more before regularization will now have their earlier service counted for pension eligibility. However, this benefit will be limited to pension calculations only.

Seniority, salary, and other service-related benefits will continue to be governed as per the recruitment rules. The court has ordered the state government to implement this directive within 60 days.

According to senior advocate MPS Raghuvanshi, this judgment was passed in response to over 100 petitions filed by employees across various departments. These employees demanded that their pre-regularization service also be treated as pensionable service.

Most of the petitioners were appointed on a daily wage basis and were later regularized under the 1990 and 2007 regularization policies. The court noted that once employees start receiving monthly wages, they move into the category of temporary non-contingent wage earners.

As per Rule 2(c) of the MP Work Charged and Contingency Paid Employees Pension Rules, 1979, employees are eligible for permanent status after completing 15 years of service. The court also clarified that in case of conflict between two rules, the more beneficial rule in a welfare state should be applied in favor of the employee.