Judgment

Srikrishna, J.—Delay condoned. Leave granted in the Special Leave Petitions.

2. This group of Special Leave Petitions and Transferred Cases raise the same issue of law, though the origin of the cases and the paths by which they found their way to this Court are different. A brief resume of the facts is called for.

Civil Appeal No. 129 of 2003 :

3. The respondents are employees of the Government of Punjab who retired during the period 31.7.1993 to 31.3.1995. They sought the benefit of a circular dated 13.12.1996 under which the State Government employees, who retired or died on or after 1.4.1995, were entitled to get retirement gratuity/death gratuity on the basis of addition of certain portion of the dearness pay to the basic pay. This benefit was refused to them. The respondents challenged the decision of the State Government declining them the aforesaid benefit by a group of writ petitions (numbered CWP No. 4995/97 and others) before the High Court of Punjab & Haryana. The High Court partially allowed the writ petition and held that such of the State Government’s employees, who had retired on or after 1.7.1993, were entitled to the higher amount of death gratuity and retirem