The Punjab and Haryana high court on October 23 upheld an order passed by Central Administrative Tribunal, where the general provident fund-cum old pension scheme was extended to PGI doctors working before January 1, 2004.

The doctors were initially appointed on an ad-hoc basis, but continued working after regular selection of doctors as well, and were appointed on a regular basis from 2005 to 2011. During the earlier period, they earned all the increments and benefits on par with the other doctors. However, the doctors later claimed that they were wrongfully denied the Central Government pension scheme and instead offered the new scheme of a contributory provident fund plan without pension. The advocate representing the doctors claimed that the delay in appointing the ad-hoc as permanent was attributable to PGI and the time the selection committee took to appoint these doctors as regular employees.

Information for the article was sourced from The Tribune. Find the original article by clicking here.