JITENDRABHAI DALICHAND MEHTA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these petitions, the petitioners who were initially appointed in the Sarvodaya Scheme ('the scheme' for short) for the activities of the scheme on different dates have prayed for a direction to the respondent authorities to take into account their entire service from 1/9/1981 to 1/4/1987 for the purposes of granting them the benefits of higher pay scales.

(2.) By notification dtd. 18/7/1980, the government decided to discontinue the scheme which brought down termination of the employees like the petitioners. Being aggrieved by their termination, some employees approached this court challenging the notification. A compromise was arrived at and the existing employees of the scheme were agreed to be included in the panchayat establishments as ex-cadre employees. The government issued a resolution accordingly on 30/7/1981. The petitioners came to be absorbed in the panchayat service with effect from 1/4/1987. They then retired on superannuation. Their past services with the scheme was ignored for the purposes of regularization and pensionary benefits. This brought them to this court by filing Special Civil Application No. 1696 of 1996 and allied matters. In the said petitions, by a decision of this court dtd. 16/10/2001, the court directed that the services rendered by the petitioners from their initial date of appointment, when they were absorbed in the panchayat cadre till the date of retirement or otherwise be treated as continuous for the purposes of pension. A circular was issued by the State on 21/6/2012 to calculate 9 years of service from 1/4/1987 for the purposes of granting benefits of higher grade scale. This according to learned Senior Counsel Mr. Shalin Mehta appearing for the petitioners would fall flat on the face inasmuch as once having counted their past services for the purposes of pension, ignoring the same for the benefits of higher grade scale was unjustified.

(3.) Even otherwise, it is evident that in a batch of petitions filed before this court being Special Civil Application No. 1270 of 2013 and allied matters on 3/8/2018 where the petitioners had claimed benefits of higher pay scale as is claimed by the present petitioners, the court observed as under: