In Brief
A railway employee challenged the Kerala State Electricity Board's decision to cancel pay weightage and order recovery of benefits after accepting his pension contribution from the Railways. The Supreme Court held that railway servants, though governed by separate service rules, remain Central Government civil servants under Articles 309 and 311 of the Constitution. Since the Board had formally accepted the pension liability and extended benefits for over a decade, it was estopped from arbitrarily withdrawing them. The Court set aside the High Court's Division Bench decision and restored the Single Judge's judgment, upholding the employee's full entitlement to all service weightage and retirement benefits.
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