J.B. Pardiwala, J.

1. Since the issues raised in all the captioned writ applications are more or less the same, those were heard analogously and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

2. For the sake of convenience, the Special Civil Application No. 16887 of 2014 is treated as the lead matter.

3. By this writ application, the petitioner, a retired employee of the Irrigation Department of the State Government, has prayed for the following reliefs:

"30(A) This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to admit this petition;

(B) This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction calling upon the respondents to fix the pension of the petitioner by quashing and setting aside the impugned order dated 24-4-2014 at Annexure -A and to pay the arrears and other pensionary benefits to the petitioner with running interest @ 18% per annum;

(C) This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondents to grant interim pension to the petitioner, during the pendency and final hearing of this petition, and

(D) This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to grant any such and further orders as may be deemed just and proper."

4. The facts of this case may be summarized as under:

"4.1 The challenge in all these writ applications is to the action of the respondents in not paying the benefits of the pension on the ground that the petitioners did not put in minimum qualifying length of service before attaining the age of superannuation.

4.2 The petitioner was appointed as a Tracer in the Irrigation Department of the State of Gujarat. He was posted in the office of the Deputy Soil Survey Office, North Gujarat Region, Soil Survey Sub-Division at Ahmedabad.

4.3 Thereafter, the petitioner was transferred to the office of the Geo-hydrologist, Groundwater Division No. 1, Paldi, Ahmedabad, and was regularized in service. The petitioner was granted the benefits of the Second Pay Commission. On 8th June, 1978, a resolution was passed, thereby all the activities pertaining to the Tubewell/irrigation which were under the Panchayat/Government were transferred to the Corporation.

4.4 On 16th June, 1978, the entire staff including the petitioner came to be transferred and they all started working in the Corporation.

4.5 On 21st October, 1981, a circular was issued whereby all the employees recruited under the different departments and transferred to the Corporation were treated to be the employees of the State Government without any deputation allowance.

4.6 On 14th October 1981, a resolution was issued stating that all the employees were treated as the employees of the State Government and options were invited whether they were wiling to be repatriated to the parent department or to remain with the Corporation. Those employees who did not exercise any option were treated to be the employees of the Corporation. They were treated to be the employees of the parent department upto 14th December, 1981. The petitioner opted to remain with the State Government.

4.7 On 19th December, 1988, he was issued a certificate by the Administrative Officer that he had been in government service from 4th August, 1966 to 13th December, 1981.

4.8 On 31st March, 2004, the petitioner retired on superannuation.

4.9 Although the petitioner was transferred to the Corporation on 16th June, 1978, and having exercised the option in the year 1981, his G.P.F. deductions were credited in the government account till 1983. His C.P.F. was started in the Corporation from 1984-85.

4.10 The petitioner prayed that he be granted pension as he had rendered services for about fifteen years.

4.11 On 2nd April, 2004, the Executive Engineer addressed a communication to the Administrative Officer of the Corpora