Karnataka High Court Affirms Retired Law Professor's Right to Old Pension Scheme With Interest

The High Court of Karnataka Division Bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna and Justice Hema Kulkarni dismissed the State government's appeal against the single judge's March 2026 judgment and held retired law professor Chidananda Reddy S. Patil entitled to pension under the old pension scheme.

For two years after his superannuation on December 31, 2024, he was paid no pension while the State dithered over the erroneous question of whether he fell under the old or the new scheme.

Patil joined Karnataka University, Dharwad, as a lecturer on March 14, 1996. He rose to associate professor and served as principal of Sir Siddappa Kambali Law College, a constituent college of the university.

In 2013 he applied through the proper channel under the government's rules for the post of professor at Karnataka State Law University, Hubballi. After selection he tendered a technical resignation under Rule 252(b) of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules, which the order treats as facilitating transfer of service benefits on joining another State-run organisation.

Karnataka University accepted that resignation under Rule 252(b) and relieved him with a last pay certificate to protect his pay in the new institution. Karnataka State Law University had clarified in 2021 that he was entitled to the old pension scheme as per law.

At superannuation the government still denied him benefits under that scheme. The order records that it relied on a clause in his 2013 appointment order stipulating that his service in the new university would be governed by the New Fixed Contributory Pension Scheme.

Resignation bridged two appointments

The Bench rejected the State's argument that the technical resignation did not automatically preserve pensionary rights earned in the earlier post. It called the State's reading an administrative misreading of the law that sought to efface nearly 17 years of his earlier service with Karnataka University.

"A technical resignation is a bridge between two appointments; it is not, by its very nature, a guillotine intended to sever every benefit flowing from the service rendered before it," the Bench said.

"What the statute preserves, a contractual stipulation cannot extinguish," the Bench said. It added that "statutory rights are not commodities to be bartered away at the threshold of employment."

The government must now pay pension within eight weeks, with arrears carrying interest at 6% per annum from the due date. Failure to comply within that timeline will attract punitive interest at 12% per annum and litigation costs of Rs 1 lakh against the government.