Prior Railway Service Counted for Electricity Board Employment Benefits

Judgment dated of the Supreme Court in SLP (Civil) No.1377-1380 of 2021 of Bency John  Vs.   Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd and others

After completing more than ten years of regular pensionable service as Junior Draftsman with the Indian Railways, the appellant was relieved in 2001 to join the Kerala Electricity Board as Sub-Engineer.

The Railways remitted the pro-rata pension liability to the Board and this was recorded in the service book that the Railways service is liable to be reckoned for pension.

This is how the appellant’s prior Railways service was reckoned in the Board and granted weightage for pay fixation and other benefits.

However, in 2012, the audit objection was raised to the fixation of pay on the ground that the Railways service is not reckoned as Central Government service for weightage in pay revision and recovery was sought.

HELD that a railway servant though appointed in a Government Railway under rules made exclusively for the Railways in exercise of powers under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution remains a person holding a civil post in connection with the affairs of the Union under the administrative control of the Central Government. The Railway Board functions as the Government of India itself for railway administration; consequently, service under the Railway Board in the broader sense is service under the Central Government, and a railway servant does not cease to be a member of the civil service of the Central Government merely because his conditions of service are regulated by rules specific to the Railways.

We are surprised that after the appellant was extended benefits in terms of the “Board Orders”, the same was sought to be withdrawn on the basis of a purported order of the Chairman of the Board dated 3rd June, 2013, preceded by a note of the Chief Internal Auditor of the Board dated 1st December, 2012.