EMPLOYEES OLD-AGE BENEFITS INSTITUTION, LAHORE vs MUHAMMAD RAFIQUE Ss

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EMPLOYEES OLD-AGE BENEFITS INSTITUTION, LAHORE VS MUHAMMAD RAFIQUE Ss. 22(1)(b), 22a & Schedule, Clause 1---Employees' Old-age benefits---Duration of service---Rounding off principle---applicability--- Petitioner of Employees' old-age benefit institution was aggrieved of judgment passed by High Court allowing claims of respondents of retired employees whose length of service was short of a few months from the duration of 15 years---Validity---Provision of Clause 1 of Schedule to Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976 does not merely prescribe a formula for calculation of monthly pension; rather, it also provides pragmatic mechanism for accounting fractional periods of insurable employment---This reflects legislative intent to avoid technical disqualifications on account of insignificant shortfalls and to ensure that substantive rights are not defeated by minor procedural deficiencies---'Rounding off' provision contained in Schedule to Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976 must be read harmoniously with S.22 of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---any interpretation that excludes its application at the stage of determining eligibility would not only defeat the express legislative scheme but would also result in manifest injustice, thereby frustrating the social-welfare objectives underlying the statute---acceptance of such interpretation does not create an inconsistency between Ss. 22 & 22a of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---Provision of S.22a of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976 operates in a distinct and separate field and is intended to cover cases where the insured person falls substantially short of the qualifying period for a pension---Respondents of retired employees did not, in arithmetical terms, complete fifteen full calendar years of employment, as defined under S.2(q) of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---Upon application of the principle of 'rounding off' expressly provided in Schedule to Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976, their period of insurable employment was deemed to have been completed up to fifteen years, as required under proviso to S.22(1)(b) of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---Such deeming fiction was not judicially invented but was expressly provided by the Legislature itself through Schedule to Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---Once the Schedule to Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976 was applied in its proper perspective, respondents of retired employees could not be said to have fallen short of the mandatory requirement---On the contrary respondents of retired employees were to be treated as having satisfied all the conditions prescribed under S.22(1) of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976---Respondents of retired employees had fulfilled mandatory requirements of Section 22(1) of Employees' Old-age Benefits act, 1976 through the statutorily recognized mechanism of 'rounding off' and were rightly found entitled to the grant of a monthly old-age pension by High Court---Supreme Court declined to interfere in the judgment passed by High Court which had correctly understood the controversy at hand and made a well-founded decision based on the relevant law on the issue---High Court arrived at a sound and reasoned conclusion that was both legally correct and just and there was no illegality, perversity or misreading or non-reading of evidence in the judgment passed by High Court---Petition for leave to appeal was dismissed and leave to appeal was refused.

EMPLOYEES OLD-AGE BENEFITS INSTITUTION, LAHORE vs MUHAMMAD RAFIQUE Ss — 2026 PLC 107 FEDERAL-CONSTITUTIONAL-COURT

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