FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION – Whether employees taking BSNL VRS, will they be eligible for Pension Revision as per 3rd P.R.C.
No.
It is for severing the employer-employee relationship legally. Hence any benefit like pay revision etc are not applicable to those who took VRS even though they were in service on the date of implementing the pay revision granted retrospectively.
As per the Supreme Court judgment, in case pay revision and pension revision are allowed retrospectively, they are not applicable for those who took VRS.
Sanjay Behari, an employee of IFCI took VRS on 25.2.2008. But pay revision took place with effect from 1.11.2007 as per the order issued on 16.7.2013. He went to Delhi High Court stating that the pay revision should be made applicable for him since he was in the service on the date of pay revision, 1.11.2007. But the High Court did not agree and dismissed his case on 20.7.2017, in view of the Supreme Court judgment in A.K.Bindal Versus Union of India (2003) 5 SCC 163. In this order the Supreme Court has stated that Ex Gratia given in VRS is not for any work done by the employee who took VRS.
Thus in case Pay Revision and Pension revision take place retrospectively, it will not be applicable to an employee who took VRS even though he was in service on the date from which pay and pension were revised.
The relevant portion of the judgements says as follows:-
It is (VRS) a package deal of give and take. That is why in business world it is known as “Golden Handshake”. The main purpose of paying this amount is to bring about a complete cessation of the jural relationship between the employer and the employee. After the amount is paid and the employee ceases to be under the employment of the company or the undertaking, he leaves with all his rights and there is no question of his again agitating for any kind of his past rights, with his erstwhile employer including making any claim with regard to enhancement of pay scale for an earlier period.
