Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has extended a major relief to contract employees by deciding that their contract period will now be counted towards pension benefits. This decision follows a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of India and comes with the withdrawal of an earlier government directive that had excluded contract service from pension calculations.
The Finance Department’s Pension Branch issued an order on Saturday stating that the earlier directive — which had stipulated that contract service would not be counted — has been revoked with immediate effect. Officials acknowledged that the earlier order failed to interpret the Supreme Court’s decision correctly, prompting the revision.
Under Section 6 of the Government Employees Recruitment and Conditions of Service Act, 2024, pension and other service-related benefits, such as seniority, increments, and promotions, were initially to be calculated only from the date of regular appointment. The February 16 directive had reinforced this interpretation and stated that employees regularised after December 12, 2003, would be eligible for pension benefits only from their date of regularisation. In some cases, benefits already granted by counting contract service were also at risk of being revoked.
However, with the fresh order, the state government clarified that contract service will now be recognised for the purpose of calculating pension benefits. This change is expected to bring significant financial and emotional relief to thousands of contract employees who had long been awaiting clarity on the issue.
Employees who had served on contract before December 12, 2003, and were regularised before that date will continue to be covered under the previous provisions, under which their contract period was considered valid for pension calculations.
The decision is likely to have financial implications for the state exchequer but has been welcomed as a positive move towards fair treatment of long-serving contract staff across various departments in the state.
