Dear Colleague,
The point here is the completed year and continuous service under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.
Section 2A explains continuous service, which is crucial to understand. For the purposes of this Act:
1. An employee shall be considered to be in continuous service for a period if he has, during that time, been in uninterrupted service. This includes service that may be interrupted due to sickness, accident, leave, absence from duty without leave (not being absence in respect of which an order treating the absence as a break in service has been passed in accordance with the standing order, rules, or regulations governing the employees of the establishment), lay off, strike, or a lock-out or cessation of work not due to any fault of the employee. This applies whether such service was rendered before or after the commencement of this Act.
2. If an employee (not employed in a seasonal establishment) is not in continuous service as defined in clause (1) for a period of one year or six months, he shall be deemed to be in continuous service under the employer if:
a) For a period of one year, the employee has actually worked under the employer for not less than:
(i) one hundred and ninety days, in the case of an employee employed below the ground in a mine or in an establishment that works for less than six days in a week; and
(ii) two hundred and forty days, in any other case;
b) For a period of six months, the employee has actually worked under the employer for not less than:
(i) ninety-five days, in the case of an employee employed below the ground in a mine or in an establishment that works for less than six days in a week; and
(ii) one hundred and twenty days, in any other case.
The service computation is from your Date of Joining (DOJ) to Date of Leaving (DOL) and not the calendar year period. Therefore, if you have completed 4 years and 240 days of service in the 5th year of your service (not the calendar year), then you are eligible for gratuity, which you may claim from your company upon relieving.