NEW DELHI: Following the Supreme Court's order, the Central government employees retiring a day before their annual pay hike date would be now eligible to get notional increment for the purpose of calculating the pension admissible to them, an official order said.

"It is advised that in pursuance of the above referred order dated 20.02.2025 of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, action may be taken to allow the increment on July 1/January 1 to the Central government employees who retired/are retiring a day before it became due, i.e., on June 30/December 31, and have rendered the requisite qualifying service as on the date of their superannuation with satisfactory work and good conduct for calculating the pension admissible to them," the order issued by the personnel ministry said.

The existing rules allow the employees to choose either July 1 or January 1 as their increment date.

As specifically mentioned in the orders of the apex court, "grant of the notional increment on January 1/July 1 shall be reckoned only for the purpose of calculating the pension admissible, and not for the purpose of calculation of other pensionary benefits," said the order issued on Tuesday.

Referring to another Supreme Court directive, the ministry said that "one increment will be payable on and after 01.05.2023".

Enhanced pension for the period prior to April 30, 2023, will not be paid, it said in the order issued to all the Central ministries.

The All India NPS Employees Federation, which is working for the welfare of Central and state government employees, welcomed the decision and expressed its gratitude to the Centre.

The federation's national president Manjeet Singh Patel also requested the government to extend the benefit of the notional increment to the employees who opt for the unified pension scheme under the National Pension System.

There are about 48.66 lakh Central government employees.