Supreme Court (Image Credit: ANI)

New Delhi: Noting that pension is not a “reward but an enforceable constitutional right” and a benefit of hard work earned by an employee on the basis of long and continuous service, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a temporary casual laborer in a government department will be entitled to pension benefits on retirement even in the absence of job regularization.A widow from Bihar, whose husband worked as a casual employee in a post office for three decades, had to wage an 18-year legal battle through three layers of litigation – Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna HC and SC – to receive pension benefits as the top court rejected the Centre’s plea and passed an order in her favour. It refused to accept the government’s argument that it would impose a financial burden. It says, “Pension is not a matter of grace dependent on the financial convenience of the employer, but a deferred salary earned through long years of service.”A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and AG Masih said that employees who have rendered continuous and essential service for a long period cannot be deprived of the benefits available to regular employees merely on the basis of nomenclature. It said that the government should work as an ideal employer. The bench said, “Any classification which results in denial of any benefit to a class of employees, who are otherwise similarly situated in terms of duties and responsibilities, would be violative of the constitutional ethos.”