STATE OF KERALA Vs. A.V. JAYAKUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State and its Officers are the petitioners herein, aggrieved by the order dtd. 1/8/2019 in O.A.(Ekm).No.1763/2018 before the Kerala Administrative Tribunal. The brief facts necessary for disposal of the O.P.(KAT) are as follows:

(2.) The applicants were initially appointed as Hand Receipt workers [HR workers]. They had approached the Government and the High Court for getting the benefit of the aforementioned G.O. inter alia contending that there was no material difference between a CLR worker and an HR worker for the purposes of the aforementioned G.O. The said contention was accepted by the High Court by judgment dtd. 2/1/2002 in O.P.No.19745/1997. The Government was therefore directed to consider the claim of the applicants to treat them as CLR workers on merits in the light of the G.O. dtd. 20/1/1990. When the Government did not pass any orders thereafter, the applicants approached the Tribunal seeking the benefit of the G.O. dtd. 20/1/1990. In the O.A., they claimed that they were entitled to be absorbed as SLR workers with effect from 20/1/1990, the date of the G.O. and for consequential benefits. The Tribunal, by the impugned order dtd. 1/8/2019 in O.A. (Ekm).No.1763/2018, found that the applicants were entitled to be regularised with effect from 20/1/1990 and they were also entitled to all the consequential benefits arising therefrom [Ext.P6].

(3.) The Government thereafter acted upon the direction of the Tribunal and granted the benefit of retrospective regularisation from the date of Annexure A1 G.O subject to the rider that monetary benefits would be available only from the date of the order granting the benefit of regularisation. Aggrieved by the said G.O., to the extent it did not grant the monetary benefits, the applicants once against approached the Tribunal through M.A.(Ekm).No.122/2021 in O.A.(Ekm).No.1763/2018. The Tribunal found that having regularised the services as SLR with effect from 20/1/1990, there was no justification in denying the consequential benefits from the date of regularisation. It is therefore that the petitioners have assailed the main order of the Tribunal in O.A.(Ekm.)No.1763/2018 wherein, the finding of the Tribunal was that the applicants stood entitled to receive the monetary benefits consequent to their regularisation as SLR workers from 20/1/1990 itself.