In Brief
Agricultural Development Bank Limited, a cooperative bank, introduced a pension scheme in 1989 for its employees who opted to join. After 20 years, facing financial difficulties, the Bank deleted the pension scheme in 2014 and attempted to revert employees to the statutory scheme. Retired employees sued, and the High Court held the retroactive deletion unconstitutional. The Supreme Court dismissed the Bank's appeals, ruling that once employees acquire vested pension rights through a duly introduced scheme, those rights cannot be retrospectively withdrawn—doing so violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. Pension is a socio-economic security, not charity. The Court directed payment of arrears in instalments and ongoing pensions from January 2022.
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