Contributory provident fund, pension row: Good news for teachers, Court gives this money order to state

A government servant has nothing but money uncertainty, even penury, to face if he does not have Provident Fund and pensions. These are two backbones of government employees, which assure them of a secure retirement. And if the matter pertains to teachers who are one among the less paid government employees, then it must be looked into seriously. On a similar line, the Meghalaya High Court has disposed two petitions filed by the Meghalaya College Teachers Association and has directed the government to correct the contributory provident fund (CPF) with retrospective effect within 3 months. It warned the government that in case of non-compliance, it will have to pay pension to all deficit college teachers in the state as per rules.

The verdict applies for all the state government deficit/ad-hoc/aided college teachers and staffs. The court also directed the government to provide the benefits of the Assam Non-Government (Deficit) College Central Pension and Provident Fund Act, 1997 and the Assam Deficit College Employees (Pension) Rules, 1998, to the teachers who retired/joined prior to April 1, 2010, to those who are still serving, and also to those who retire after 2010 till 2018 and in future, with retrospective effect.

The court also said the government should give the benefits of the new defined contributory pension scheme with effect from the day of joining instead of April 1, 2018, to the teachers who joined service on or after April 1, 2010.

The bench came down hard on the state government and asked it not only to pay the due salaries to the teachers but also ordered it to frame rules for all pensioner benefits including family pension for retired teachers.

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In the petition, the teachers' association had urged the court to direct the state authorities to ensure implementation of the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and all other schemes for the academic staffs.