Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 30: High Court today refused to accept the plea of retired employees of J&K Handicrafts Corporation seeking grant of pensionary and retiral benefits on the parity of employees of other J&K Units.
Justice Sanjay Dhar dismissed the three petitions filed by the former employees of Handicrafts Corporation in a common judgment. Through the medium of these writ petitions, the former employees were seeking a direction upon the Government to grant in their favour the pensionary and retiral benefits on parity with the employees of various units of the Jammu and Kashmir Industries Limited, J&K Handloom Silk Weaving Factory and J&K Handloom Development Corporation.
These employees claimed that they were Government employees and at the time of their retirement, they were given certain payments by their employer-Corporation and are seeking to extend all the benefits to them in terms of Government Order No.219-IND of 2002 dated 08.08.2002 read with Government Order No.35-IND of 2018 dated 25.01.2018 whereby sanction was accorded to grant pension in favour of the employees of the other J&K Units like J&K Industries Ltd, J&K Handloom Silk Weaving Factory employees and J&K Handloom Development Corporation etc who had been appointed after 03.10.1963.
Justice Dhar while rejecting the pleas of these employees said the petitioner-employees were, admittedly, holding the posts of Piece Rated Workers belonging to the J&K Handicrafts (S&E) Corporation and were paid their wages according to their earning per day as per the market rate. Therefore, a Piece Rated Worker of the Corporation was not getting any graded or regular scale of pay and, as such, cannot be equated with an employee of the said Corporation who was on its regular establishment.
“The petitioners, therefore, cannot claim parity with the employees of the respondent Corporation who were granted pensionary benefits pursuant to the Government Order No.35- IND of 2018 dated 25.01.2018. On this ground alone, the case of the petitioners deserves to be dismissed. For the foregoing reasons, I do not find any merit in these writ petitions. The same are dismissed accordingly”, Justice Dhar concluded.
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