ADMINISTROR,GURUVAYUR DEVASWOM Vs. ARAVINDAN P.C.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Guruvayoor Devaswom Board Administration and its Deputy Administrator have filed the instant intra court appeal under Sec.5(i) of the Kerala High Court Act, so as to impugn the judgment dated 09-11-2020 rendered by the learned Single Judge in W.P(C)No.9256/2019 filed by R1 herein (writ petitioner).

(2.) Heard Sri.T.K.Vipindas, learned Standing Counsel for the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board appearing for the appellants/respondents 2 to 4 in the W.P(C), Sri.K.Sajan Varghese, learned Advocate appearing for R1 herein/writ petitioner and Sri.B.Vinod, learned Senior Government Pleader appearing for R2 & R3 herein/R1 & R5 in the W.P(C).

(3.) The case set up by the 1st respondent herein (writ petitioner) in the abovesaid Writ Petition (C) is broadly as follows: That he was appointed initially as Health Assistant in the Guruvayoor Devaswom on 21-04-1983 and the said post was later re-designated as Junior Health Inspector Grade-II. Subsequently, he was promoted as Additional Health Supervisor with effect from 15-03-2002 and later he was promoted as Health Supervisor on 01-06-2003, in which post he continued till his retirement on 28-02-2018. Since his retirement benefits were not disbursed to him, the petitioner made enquiries and he came to know that objections were raised by the Senior Deputy Director of Local Fund Audit to the Devaswom authorities alleging that the petitioner has not acquired the departmental test qualification required to hold the post of Health Supervisor. Further that since he has not secured the departmental test qualification, he became legally eligible to be considered for promotion to the post of Health Supervisor only on completion of 25 years of service, which is the main requisite for securing exemption from the test qualification and that he became eligible to secure the test qualification exemption only on 10-05-2008 and the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board Administration has taken the view that the promotions and increments granted to the petitioner were erroneous and that the pensionary benefits could be fixed and disbursed only after those vital defects are rectified. For this, Ext.P3 notice was issued by R3 in the W.P(C) to the petitioner on 11-12-2018 giving him further time to produce requisite materials to show that he has in fact obtained the test qualification, etc.