Old Pension Scheme: Calcutta HC says employees cannot lose pension benefits over a technical job-switching lapse

Calcutta High Court has directed authorities to reconsider a government employee’s Old Pension Scheme claim, ruling that failure to disclose a prior job application or obtain technical resignation cannot by itself defeat eligibility under the 2023 pension option.

A government employee who moved from a peon’s post to a lower-grade clerk’s job in 2007 after being selected through a separate recruitment process has got a fresh opportunity to seek coverage under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), after the Calcutta High Court found that a technical procedural lapse should not by itself defeat a beneficial pension provision.

In its September 7, 2026 judgment in Shri Erotu Kurma Rao vs Union of India & Others (WP.CT/4/2026), a division bench of Justices Amrita Sinha and Biswaroop Chowdhury set aside the rejection of the employee’s claim and the Central Administrative Tribunal’s order upholding it. The authorities have been directed to reconsider his claim under a 2023 government Office Memorandum without rejecting it merely because he did not obtain or apply for a “technical resignation.”

Employee had applied for two government jobs

The employee had first applied for the post of peon against a recruitment advertisement issued in 2002. He was appointed in September 2006. Separately, he had applied for the post of lower-grade clerk against a 2005 advertisement.

After he was selected as a lower-grade clerk, he resigned from the peon’s post on 14 March 2007. Importantly, his resignation letter disclosed that he had been selected for the other post and intended to join it. His resignation was accepted and he was relieved on 23 March 2007. He joined as a lower-grade clerk on 27 March 2007.

His appointment to the new post, however, was covered by the New Pension Scheme, 2004.

The issue surfaced much later when the government issued an Office Memorandum dated 3 March 2023 providing a one-time option for eligible Central government employees appointed against vacancies advertised before 22 December 2003 to come under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972/2021.