In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi University to grant relief of monthly pension under General Provident Fund (GPF) to some 300-odd teachers from around 72 colleges.
These teachers had in 1987 opted to continue with cumulative provident fund (CPF), which is paid as lump sum at the time of retirement. They will now be covered under GPF, which provides a monthly pension.
A Division Bench headed by Justice Ravindra Bhat upheld the appeal of DU teachers against a single judge order and directed that these teachers be covered under GPF too.
Advocate Tarun Khurana, who represented all 300 teachers, said: “It is a landmark judgment after a legal battle since 2010. The court has upheld our appeal against the single judge order of 2014, which had said that these teachers cannot opt for a monthly pension if they had given their choice in writing to DU within the cut-off date in 1987.”
Mr. Khurana added that before the Delhi University Act came into being, there was a system of CPF, under which a lump sum was paid by way of two cheques at the time of retirement.
Many teachers could be seen rejoicing outside the courtroom on Wednesday.
A jubilant Kamlesh Kaur of Mata Sundari College for Woman said: “It is a big victory for all of us.”
In 1987, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had issued a memorandum stating that the pension scheme for DU teachers will be changed to a monthly scheme and money would be deducted from their salaries towards a GPF, unless teachers opted for a CPF. The UGC gave five months to all to give in writing their choice. Those who did not specifically chose to opt for CPF were automatically considered to have shifted to GPF.
The teachers who had come to court were those who had given in writing that they wanted to continue with CPF. Later, on 11 occasions, DU granted an opportunity to all to change their choice and shift to GPF. However, these opportunities never came to the notice of the petitioners and in 2010, they moved court to get the benefit of the GPF scheme.
