Chandigarh, July 2 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed Haryana government and Kurukshetra University (KU) to extend Old Pension Scheme (OPS) benefits to faculty members, who were recruited against the posts advertisement prior to implementation of new pension scheme (NPS).

The high court bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya also imposed a cost of Rs.5 lakh on the government and the varsity for acting "arbitrarily" and "unreasonably" in the case of faculty members of KU.

The petitioners, recruited as lecturers, were demanding restoration of OPS and quashing of July 2023 communication of the state government, whereby varsities were directed not to act on a May 2023 communication regarding inclusion of those employees under OPS,...