ORDER :

1. This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is filed seeking the following relief:

“.......to issue a Writ, Order or Direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the proceedings in Rc. No. 161/2021431, dated 7.8.2021 issued by the District Audit Officer, State Audit Ananthapuram, Ananthapuram District rejecting the claim of the petitioner for payment pension and abruptly stopping payment of pension to the petitioner as wholly illegal, arbitrary, violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India apart from being violative of principles of natural Justice and consequently declare that the petitioner is entitled for payment of pension uninterruptedly and pass and to pass such other order.....”

2. The case of the petitioner in brief is that initially the petitioner herein was appointed as Helper on 14.08.1986 in Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Rural Irrigation Corporation Limited, Anantapur. Later, the services of the petitioner were regularized and probation was declared in the cadre of Helper from 31.12.1991.

3. While so, the Executive Engineer/3rd respondent, Andhra Pradesh State Co-operative Rural Irrigation Corporation Limited, Anantapur requested the District Collector/4th respondent, Anantapur to absorb the petitioner and other employees in the vacancies available in different departments. In view of the said request, the 4th respondent issued proceedings dated 02.08.2003 allotting the petitioner to the Office of the Executive Engineer (PR), Dharmavaram Division at Anantapur District to work on deputation basis as Watchman and later transferred to Tadipatri No. II. Since then, the petitioner is working as Watchman under Last Grade Service in Panchayat Raj Department.

4. Later, the petitioner was appointed to Special Grade Post and also as Special Adhoc Promotion Post with time scale on completion of 8 years and 12 years respectively. Therefore, the petitioner is being treated as a Last Grade Servant in Panchayat Raj Department. While so, the Managing Director, Andhra Pradesh State Cooperative Rural Irrigation Corporation Limited, Hyderabad issued proceedings dated 19.05.2016 retiring the petitioner from service w.e.f. 31.05.2016 on attaining age of superannuation of 58 years. Questioning the same, the petitioner herein filed W.P. No. 16684 of 2016 before the Hon’ble composite High Court, wherein the composite High Court granted an interim order dated 26.05.2016 directing the respondents to continue in service till the age of superannuation of 60 years.

5. Subsequently, keeping in view the legal and rule position, the 4th respondent issued proceedings dated 19.04.2017 posting the petitioner as Office Subordinate in the office of Deputy Director Ground Water Department, Anantapur in the existing vacancy and had been worked till the age of superannuation. Thereafter, the 5th respondent issued letter dated 17.07.2018 to the 3rd respondent regarding claim of the retirement and pensionary benefits of the petitioner in the parent department. The 6th respondent issued orders dated 07.09.2018 sanctioning monthly pension of Rs. 16,762/-. More so, an amount of Rs. 6,86,464/- was sanctioned towards towards Death-cum-Retirement gratuity and an amount of Rs. 6,59,191/- was sanctioned towards commutation of pension.

6. While things stood thus, the 6th respondent issued proceedings dated 16.07.2019 requesting the District Treasury Officer to stop the pensionary benefits of the petitioner without any prior notice to the petitioner on the ground that the pensionary benefits were only can be granted to the Government employees. Thereafter, the pension proposals of the petitioner were sent to the 6th respondent along with the service register. Thus, the 6th respondent issued another proceedings dated 18.07.2019 requesting the 3rd respondent to recover the pensionary benefits paid to the petitioner and credit the same to the Government funds on the ground that the pensiona