The Karnataka High Court has upheld retired professor Chidananda Reddy S. Patil’s entitlement to a pension under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), dismissing the State government’s appeal. The court directed the government to pay his pension arrears within eight weeks, with interest at 6% a year from the date the payments fell due.
Dispute over service transfer
Patil joined Karnataka University in 1996 and moved to Karnataka State Law University in 2013 after being selected for a professor’s post. He resigned from the first university under a rule allowing a technical resignation when an employee moves to another State-run institution. The government later denied him OPS benefits, relying on a condition in his appointment order that placed his KSLU service under the New Fixed Contributory Pension Scheme.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Nagaprasanna and Hema Kulkarni rejected the government’s position. It held that the technical resignation had not erased the pension rights associated with his earlier service. The judges also warned that failure to meet the payment deadline would attract interest of 12% a year and litigation costs of ₹1 lakh.
