Dear Param Veena,
The doubt you've raised based on the statutory minimum no. of days of service to be rendered by an employee in a year for the purpose of entitlement to gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act,1972 is reasonable. However, if we analyse the case on hand in the back drop of the provisions of Sec.2-A of the Act which defines "continuous service" not merely with reference to the number of days of service rendered by any employee but mainly on the factum of continuity of his employment in the establishment. The entire legal fiction created by sec.2-A , in fact, heavily rests and revolves around the fulcrum of the employee's continuity of service in the establishment or the subsistence of his contract of employment. Since the employee had actually applied for whatever leave in his credit as well as leave on loss of pay for the entire period of last two years in question which were not negatived by the employer nor treated formally as break in service, the employee has to be considered to have been in the service of the establishment till the date of his death or his actual date of superannuation whichever is earlier. Therefore, my opinion is that the nominee/legal heir of the deceased employee is entitled to get gratuity for the entire 33 years of service during which the deceased was on the roll of the Company.