ORDER :

MAHESWARA RAO KUNCHEAM, J.

The writ petitions are filed to declare the action of the respondents in withholding the terminal benefits of the petitioners as illegal, arbitrary, etc., and for consequential direction to pay the terminal benefits to the petitioners along with interest @ 18% per annum and also to pay costs of these proceedings to the petitioners.

2. Heard Sri Peeta Raman, learned counsel for the petitioners and Sri A.Rajendra Babu, learned counsel for respondent Nos.1 & 4.

3. The petitioners have approached this Court seeking direction to the respondents to disburse their terminal benefits. As the relief sought in all these writ petitions is identical and similar lines of arguments were advanced by the learned counsel for both sides, they were taken up together.

Brief case of the petitioners

4. The petitioners were initially appointed as Cadre Secretaries i.e., Paid Secretaries, under the administrative control of the 1^st respondent/Krishna District Cooperative Central Bank Ltd. (in short ‘DCCB’). As per orders of the DCCB, the petitioners and other similarly situated persons were allotted to Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society (in short ‘PACS’). At that point, the post of Paid Secretary got decategorized as Secretary and from then the petitioners discharged their duties under the administrative control of concerned PACS till 01.03.2009.

5. While the things stood thus, in order to implement the NABARD guidelines on expenditure and man power norms, it was decided to take back the services of the reverted decategorized Paid Secretaries (Secretaries) of PACSs by the respective district DCCBs.

6. Subsequently, the petitioners after completing their tenure at the concerned PACS, again they joined in the service of the 1^st respondent DCCB on 02.03.2009. During the course of their service, the petitioners continued to work for enrichment of the DCCB and PACSs without any remark and rendered their unblemished service till their retirement age i.e., on 30.06.2009, 30.04.2011, 30.06.2010 and 30.11.2013 respectively.

7. To the petitioners’ dismay, the terminal benefits due to them on their retirement right from the year 2009 onwards, were not paid by the respondents on the ground that the share towards terminal benefits from the 3^rd respondent PACS had not been released.

8. According to the petitioners, the 1^st respondent in order to clear/pay the terminal benefits to the petitioners by adding its share as well as the share of the APCOB issued Circular vide Establishment/SCA/2013-14, dated 24.01.2014 and asked the President, Penamaluru, PACS to deposit its part share with regard to the terminal benefits of the petitioners, but the same was not honoured by the President, PACS, Penamaluru till today.

9. The petitioners who are senior citizens being deprived of their terminal benefits i.e., gratuity, leave encashment, etc., having left with no other efficacious remedy have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, by filing the instant writ petitions.

Submissions of the respective counsels:

10. Sri Peeta Raman, learned counsel for the petitioners referring to the averments made in the writ affidavits, has advanced arguments. He asserted that indisputably petitioners after extending their unblemished service to the respondents DCCB, had retired from their respective services without any disciplinary or criminal proceedings pending against them and in spite of the same, they have not received their terminal benefits since then.

11. The learned counsel also urged that all the petitioners are senior citizens, and non-release of the terminal benefits i.e., gratuity and leave encashment, etc, from the respondent DCCB and PACS, would cause multifarious problems and adversely affect the petitioners and their family members physically, psychologically and fiscally. He submitted that the action of the respondents in withholding the terminal benefits of the petitioners, who are senior citizens, has put their righ