B.P. JEEVAN REDDY, J.

(1) LEAVE granted in special leave petitions.

(2) A common question arises in this batch of appeals. For the sake of convenience, we may state the facts in Civil No. 1102 of 1995 (State of Punjab v. Prof. Dev Dutt Kaushal, (Lecturer), the facts of which case alone were placed before us as representative of the facts in other appeals.

(3) THE respondent joined a private educational institution, M.R. College, Fazilka, as a lecturer on 26/11/1956. After one year, his services were confirmed. .His date of birth is 29/10/1931. According to the conditions of service obtaining in the said private educational institution, the age of retirement was fixed at sixty years which could be extended up to sixty-five years in certain situations. The said college was taken over by the State government on 30/6/1983 and since then is being run as a government college. The respondent was continued in service after such take-over. On 31/10/1989, he was retired from service on attaining the age of fifty-eight years which is the age of superannuation prescribed under the government rules. Since his service under the government was less than ten yea