SOBHANA K Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Counting of provisional service for the purpose of increment has always been a subject matter of head ache not only to the Government, but this Court also. In view of the decisions in Hussain v. Kerala Water Authority, 1996 (2) KLT 555 and Jose Jacob v. State of Kerala, 1998 (2) KLT 873 , it is now well settled that provisional service prior to 1.10.1994 followed by regularisation or regular appointment with or without break in the same category of posts is liable to be counted for the purpose of increments and that by the revision of pay scale, the identity of the post and its scale of pay will not be lost. There remains still a question to be tackled -- whether the regularisation of provisional service or regular appointment followed by the provisional service should be before 1.10.1994.

(2.) Petitioners in the two cases are Junior Public Health Nurses. They have provisional service prior to 1.10.1994. But they entered regular service in the same post only after 1.10.1994. They are aggrieved since their provisional service prior to 1.10.1994 is not counted for the purpose of increments.

(3.) R.33 Part I Kerala Service Rules deals with the conditions on which service counts for increments in a time scale. Government decision No.2 as it originally existed in the Rules reads as follows:--