'Postal staff on deputation not entitled to benefits of Army men'

CHANDIGARH: In a landmark judgement, the Punjab and Haryana high court held that employees of postal department on deputation to the Army Postal Service (APS) will not be entitled for pensionary benefits at par with the regular soldiers of armed forces. Justice M Jeyapaul of the HC has passed this order while dismissing a petition filed by Subedar Charanjit Rai (retd) and other junior commissioned officers (JCOs) of APS.
"Just because the Central government's employees had discharged the very same nature of duty assigned to the Army personnel, they cannot make a claim for pensionary awards as applicable to the Army personnel against their service conditions," ruled Justice Jeyapaul in on October 31. The petitioners were employees of postal department sent on deputation to APS following a notification issued on October 9, 1957 and October 22, 1977, calling for volunteers to serve on deputation to APS.

As per the conditions of deputation, initial period of engagement is for 18 months and thereafter for a period as their services might be required. The composition of APS is 75% from the post and telegraph department and 25% on deputation from directly recruited Army personnel. These personnel on deputation are repatriated to their parent cadre by the Army authorities on attaining the age of superannuation.

According to petitioners, while serving in APS, they were carrying out the same job as that of their counterparts recruited directly by the Army and therefore they are entitled to the same pensionary and other benefits as that of directly recruited Army personnel. Dismissing their plea, Justice Jeyapaul held that petitioners were sent on deputation only after eliciting their willingness to serve in the APS.

"Petitioners had served on deputation for about 25 years. They had also been promoted as per the terms of the deputation. But their service condition is totally different from the service condition of 25% of personnel directly recruited by the Army to man the APS. The petitioners are governed by the terms and conditions of deputation and their service conditions in their parent department, whereas the directly-recruited Army personnel of the APS are governed by the service rules in the armed forces," observed the court.

The development is significant as 75% employees posted in APS are on deputation from postal department of central government, while 25 percent are direct recruits from the regular army. During their deployment with APS, the employees have all entitlements including military ranks, benefit and privileges enjoyed by regular troops of the Indian Army.