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 years, he was not granted any pension. He made a representation not only for pension but also for allowing him to continue in service till he attains the age of sixty years. Since no action was taken on his representation, he approached the Punjab and Haryana High court by way of a writ petition seeking appropriate directions to the government to allow him to continue in service till he attains the age of sixty years and also to grant him the pension taking into consideration the total length of service rendered including the service under the private educational institution. The writ petition was dismissed by a learned Single Judge in view of the terms and conditions of the gift deed which was executed at the time of take-over of the said college by the government. The respondent preferred a letters patent appeal which has been allowed by a division bench purporting to follow the decision of this court in State of orissa v. N.N. Swamy. The correctness of the said view is questioned in this batch of appeals.

(4) ACCORDING to the service conditions obtaining in the aforesaid private college, the teachers were not entitled to any pension on their retirement from service. They were only entitled to the contributory provident fund.

(5) IT would be appropriate to notice the terms and conditions of the gift deed executed by the management of the aforesaid college in favour of the government since it records the terms and conditions subject to which the government had agreed to take over the college. The gift deed specifically records that the management had applied to the government to take-over the college and that the government had agreed to do so on the terms and conditions recorded therein. The conditions relevant to our purpose are clauses 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 13. They are:

"4. It is agreed that government shall not accept any liability or responsibility for the period prior to the taking over of the college by it i.e. prior to 30/6/1983. All such liabilities shall be cleared by the Managing Committee of the college.

5. It is agreed that the college on being taken over by the government should not be overstaffed and only such staff will be kept as is justified on the basis of actual workload in accordance with the prescribed norms for different categories of staff. Confirmed and regularly appointed staff through prescribed channels and approved by the University/Department will be taken over on ad hoc basis subject to the approval of the Punjab public service commission where applicable.

6. It is agreed that such members of the staff of the college as fulfil necessary qualifications and are considered suitable for absorption in government service by the Punjab public service commission/Subordinate Service Selection Board/Department