BALAKRISHNAN ACHARY Vs. DISTRICT MEDICAL OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Admittedly, petitioner has qualifying service, as stipulated in Part III of the Kerala Service Rules for the purpose of reckoning pension, only to the extent of 7 years 11 months and 25 days as calculated in Ext. P1. That includes a part time service as well. 50 % of that part time is also counted towards the seven and odd years. To be entitled for minimum pension one should have to his credit a minimum of ten years qualifying service at the time of retirement. Admittedly, petitioner falls short of that quantum of service. Consequently, he is not entitled to superannuation pension. One will be entitled to pension as provided for in Part III, of the Kerala Service Rules, provided he is having the minimum qualifying service of ten years. Petitioner now contends relying on Ext. P3 judgment that the three years period that he had served in Home Guard shall also be reckoned as qualifying service for the purpose of granting pension. He submits that if the said three years service also is counted he will have the minimum of ten years service and he will become entitled to minimum pension. Para 5 of Ext. P3 reads as follows:

(2.) Petitioner, further relying on R.11 Part III, K. S. R. submits that notwithstanding the provisions contained in R.10, Government can declare any specified kind of service rendered as qualifying service for pension.

(3.) The word "service" used in Service Rules shall have the meaning that it shall be a civil service or serving the Government in civil capacity. In Ext. P3 the Division Bench has considered the 'past service in Home Guard'. But it is not part of Government Service. The Division Bench directed consideration of that service for reckoning qualifying service to grant pension in terms of the rules in Part III, K. S. R., as it was counted in the case of two other employees as revealed by certain exhibits produced in that Original Petition.