SRINAGAR, Sept. 30
The Jammu and Kashmir government has allowed a specified group of employees to switch from the National Pension System to the Old Pension Scheme, resolving a long-running issue involving people recruited for vacancies advertised before NPS was introduced but appointed after the new pension system took effect.
Under an order issued by the Finance Department on September 28, eligible employees have until December 28, 2026 to exercise the one-time option. The decision will be final, and employees who opt for the Old Pension Scheme, or OPS, will not be permitted to return to NPS.
The measure does not apply to all Jammu and Kashmir government employees currently covered by NPS.
Eligibility depends on two key dates. The employee must have been appointed against a post or vacancy advertised or notified before December 24, 2009, and must have joined government service on or after January 1, 2010.
Jammu and Kashmir notified the introduction of its defined-contribution pension system through SRO-400 on December 24, 2009. Employees appointed or brought onto the regular establishment from January 1, 2010 were consequently placed under NPS.
That created an anomaly for candidates whose recruitment process had begun while the previous pension system was still applicable but whose formal appointment came only after NPS took effect.
Some of those employees had been seeking the option to return to OPS on the ground that the vacancies against which they were selected had been advertised under the earlier pension framework.
The Jammu and Kashmir decision follows a similar measure introduced by the central government in 2023.
The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare issued an office memorandum on March 3, 2023 giving specified central government civil employees a one-time opportunity to move to the pension system applicable before NPS if they had been appointed against posts or vacancies advertised before the new system was introduced.
That provision did not automatically apply to employees of the Jammu and Kashmir government.
The administration subsequently examined demands for similar treatment. The Council of Ministers approved the proposal on September 10 this year, followed by the Finance Department’s formal order on September 28.
Eligible employees will have to apply through their official administrative channels rather than directly to the Finance Department.
An employee seeking the switch must submit the prescribed option to the Drawing and Disbursing Officer, or DDO. The application will then be forwarded to the Head of Department or appointing authority and subsequently to the administrative department concerned.
The administrative department will examine whether the employee meets the eligibility conditions and issue the necessary order. Cases are to be scrutinised and decided within one month.
For employees considering an application, the date on which the vacancy was advertised or notified is critical.
Being appointed after January 1, 2010 and currently covered by NPS is not sufficient by itself. Employees will have to establish that the post against which they were recruited had been advertised or notified before December 24, 2009.
The switch will also affect the treatment of money already accumulated in an employee’s NPS account.
Once an employee is approved for OPS coverage, the NPS account will be closed from the first day of the month following the month in which the order sanctioning OPS is issued. The employee will then become covered by the General Provident Fund, or GPF.
The employee’s accumulated contribution under NPS will be transferred to the GPF account, with interest recalculated according to the applicable GPF rules. The government’s contribution will be dealt with separately under the provisions governing the transition.
The process therefore involves more than a change in the pension arrangement applicable at retirement. Existing NPS accounts will have to be closed and their accumulated funds adjusted under the prescribed rules.
The distinction between NPS and OPS is substantial.
NPS is a defined-contribution system under which retirement benefits depend on contributions accumulated and invested during an employee’s service. OPS operates as a defined-benefit framework, with retirement pension determined according to the applicable government service and pension rules.
Employees eligible for the one-time window will therefore have to decide whether to leave the contribution-based system permanently.
The government order provides no opportunity to reverse that choice once it has been exercised.
Employees who do not submit their option by December 28 will remain covered by NPS.
The three-month window places the immediate responsibility on potentially eligible employees to verify their recruitment records and establish the date on which the vacancy or post against which they were appointed was originally advertised.
For the government, the decision addresses a relatively specific category rather than reopening the broader question of pension coverage for all employees recruited under NPS.
Its scope is tied to the transition that occurred at the end of 2009, when recruitment processes begun under the earlier pension framework continued beyond the date on which NPS became applicable.
The September 28 order now gives employees caught in that transition a final choice. Those who can establish that their vacancies were advertised before December 24, 2009 but entered service from January 1, 2010 onward have until December 28 to opt for coverage under the Old Pension Scheme.
