Telangana High Court Says Ex-Servicemen Have No Automatic Right to Last Military Pay in Civilian Jobs

Hyderabad, November 13, 2026: The Telangana High Court has ruled that former Armed Forces personnel who take up civilian government jobs are not automatically entitled to have their initial pay fixed at the level of their last-drawn military pay. A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice P. Sam Koshy and Justice Narsing Rao Nandikonda dismissed a petition by former Army and Air Force personnel re-employed as Social Security Assistants with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

The petitioners had served in the Armed Forces for 18 to 20 years and retired before turning 55. They joined the EPFO under the ex-servicemen quota between 2006 and 2012. Their case was that their initial pay in the civilian posts should have been fixed in line with the salary they last drew in the Defence Services.

The Central Administrative Tribunal’s Hyderabad Bench rejected their original application and a subsequent review application in 2018. The High Court upheld the Tribunal’s orders, finding that the petitioners had not established a legal right to protection of their last-drawn military pay.

Rules on re-employed ex-servicemen

The petitioners relied on the Central Civil Services (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986, as amended by a Department of Personnel and Training office memorandum dated 5 April 2010. They cited paragraph 4(d)(i), which applies to ex-servicemen who held posts below Commissioned Officer rank and retired before the age of 55.

Under that provision, the entire pension and the pension equivalent of retirement benefits are to be ignored when fixing the initial pay of such personnel on re-employment. The petitioners argued that this treatment of pension entitled them to have their new pay set at the level of their last-drawn Defence Services salary.

The respondents disputed that interpretation. They said the rules require pensionary benefits to be ignored but do not provide a right to protect the last pay drawn in the Armed Forces. They maintained that initial pay should instead be fixed at the entry pay in the revised pay structure applicable to direct recruits from 1 January 2006.

Why the court rejected the claim

The Bench found that the authorities had fixed the petitioners’ pay in accordance with the rules and instructions governing the re-employment of ex-servicemen who had served below Commissioned Officer rank. It said the petitioners had not shown that the pay fixation breached a mandatory provision.

“…The petitioners have not been able to demonstrate that the fixation of their initial pay by the respondents is contrary to any mandatory provision of the applicable rules. … The contention that the petitioners are entitled to protection of the last pay drawn by them in the Defence Services, merely because their pensionary benefits are required to be ignored, is devoid of merit.”

The court distinguished between disregarding pension when calculating initial pay and protecting the salary last received in military service. In its view, the first requirement does not, by itself, create an independent entitlement to the second.

In reaching its decision, the High Court relied on the Supreme Court’s 2022 judgment in Union of India and Others v. Anil Prasad. The Supreme Court had clarified that Armed Forces personnel re-employed in government service are not entitled to civil pay scales matching their last-drawn Armed Forces pay.

In Anil Prasad, the reference to last-drawn pay was treated as a ceiling: the pay calculated in the civil post could not exceed the basic pay last drawn in the Armed Forces, including deferred pay but excluding other emoluments. The Supreme Court had said that this did not create a separate right to pay protection.

That case concerned paragraph 8 of the 1986 Orders, which relates to Emergency Commissioned Officers and Short Service Commissioned Officers. The Telangana High Court said the underlying principle also applied to the present petition: without a specific provision, protection of last-drawn pay cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

The Bench also upheld the CAT’s rejection of the review application, observing that a review cannot be used as an appeal in disguise. It dismissed the writ petition and confirmed the Tribunal’s orders.

Effect of the ruling

The decision confirms that ex-servicemen who held posts below Commissioned Officer rank and retired before 55 cannot automatically claim parity with their last military pay when they enter civilian government employment. Their pay fixation is governed by the specific provisions of the CCS (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed Pensioners) Orders, 1986, and related DoPT instructions. Ignoring pension in the initial pay calculation does not, on its own, confer a right to protect the last-drawn Defence Services salary.

The ruling follows the principle set out by the Supreme Court and is likely to guide similar claims by ex-servicemen seeking re-employment in central government organisations.