Section 13 of The Unified Pension Scheme: Eligibility to receive Benefits
Eligibility to receive Benefits Unified Pension Scheme
13. Eligibility to receive Benefits. – (1) Subject to the conditions specified, UPS benefits shall be available only in the
following cases:
(a)In case of an employee superannuating after qualifying service of ten years, from the date of superannuation.
(b)In case of Central Government retiring an employee under the provisions of Fundamental Rule 56 (j) (which is not a
penalty under Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965) from the date of such retirement.
(c)In case of voluntary retirement after a minimum qualifying service period of twenty-five years, from the date such
employee would have superannuated, if the service period had continued to superannuation.
(2) Notwithstanding enrolment of an employee in the UPS option under NPS, such option shall cease to apply in case of
a UPS Subscriber who has been removed or dismissed from service or who has resigned his services.
Explanation: For the purpose of benefits under these regulations, qualifying service shall be the completed months for
which UPS subscriber has rendered regular services under the Central Government, to be determined by the Head of
Office, where such subscriber was employed at the time of superannuation or retirement, as the case may be, taking into
account the following:
(i) (a) In respect of a Central Government employee covered under clause (i) and clause (iii) of sub-regulation (1) of
regulation 3, qualifying service shall commence on such date from which such person was eligible to be enrolled under
NPS in Central Government;
(b) In respect of new recruits covered under clause (ii) of sub-regulation (1) of regulation 3, qualifying service shall
commence on such date from which such person is eligible to be enrolled under UPS.
(ii) The end date of qualifying service in respect of persons covered under sub-clause(a) and (b) of clause(i) of this
explanation shall be the date of superannuation or retirement, as the case may be.
(iii) In case of unauthorised absence from service, the qualifying service shall not include the entire past period of service
including the period of such unauthorised absence, if the same is not condoned by the competent authority.
Provided that where any unauthorised absence is condoned by the competent authority, entire past period of service shall
be counted towards qualifying service except the period of such unauthorised absence which shall not be counted. Provided further that where any unauthorised absence is regularised by the competent authority through leave due and
admissible to such employee, the entire past period and such regularised leave period shall be counted.
(iv) The qualifying service shall not include any period spent by an employee on deputation or foreign service for which
applicable contribution has not been received under the individual corpus and the pool corpus. The applicable contribution
share shall be calculated in such manner as may be determined by the Authority in consultation with Central Government.
(v) The qualifying service shall include the time passed by a Government employee under suspension pending inquiry
into his conduct where, on conclusion of such inquiry, he has been fully exonerated or only a minor penalty is imposed
and the suspension is held to be wholly unjustified. In cases not covered above, the period of suspension shall not count
unless the authority competent to pass orders under the service rules governing such cases expressly declares at the time
that it shall count to such extent as the competent authority may declare. In all cases of suspension, the competent authority
shall pass an order specifying the extent to which, if any, the period of suspension shall count as qualifying service and a
definite entry shall be made in the service book of the Government employee in this regard.
(vi) In case of extraordinary leave other than extraordinary leave granted on medical certificate, the appointing authority
may, at the time of granting such leave, allow the period of that leave to count as qualifying service if such leave is granted
to a Government employee – (i) due to his inability to join or re-join duty on account of civil commotion; or (ii) for
prosecuting higher scientific and technical studies.
Provided that in the case of extraordinary leave other than extraordinary leave granted on medical certificate and
extraordinary leave allowed to be counted as qualifying service under clause (v) above, at the time of grant of such leave,
a definite entry shall be made in the service book of the Government employee to the effect that the period of extraordinary
leave shall not be treated as qualifying service and such an entry in the service book, if not made at the time of grant of
extraordinary leave, can be made subsequently but not later than six months before the date of retirement of the
Government employee on superannuation and if no such entry is made in the service book, the period of extraordinary
leave shall be treated as qualifying service.
The illustrative examples on computation of qualifying service are provided under Schedule IV.