B.M. Trivedi, J.

1. This analogous cluster of 130 matters involves similar questions of facts and law, and therefore all the matters were heard together finally at the admission stage with the consent of the learned Advocates for the parties.

2. Special Civil Application No. 3210 of 2016 being the lead matter, the facts of the said petition shall be considered for the sake of convenience. The petitioner in the said petition has prayed for the following reliefs in paragraph 24:-

"24. (A) Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction declaring the apathy shown by the respondent authorities in removing the anomaly in pay of the petitioner resulting from the office order dated 10.8.2015 placing the 85 Lecturers in Senior Scale and Selection Grade on retrospective basis as contrary to rules, unreasonable, arbitrary, irrational and violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution;

(B) Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondent authorities to remove the anomaly in pay of the petitioner by stepping up his pay to the figure equal to the pay as fixed for his junior with effect from the date when his junior started getting more pay with all the consequential benefits, including arrears of pay and allowances;

(C) Pending admission and final hearing of the present petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the respondent authorities to process the case of the petitioner for stepping up his pay in terms of rule 21 of the Gujarat Civil Services (General Conditions of Services) Rules, 2002"

3. The petitioners in Special Civil Application No. 16061 of 2016 and others have additionally prayed to direct the respondents to grant the benefits of senior scale/selection grade, which have already become due and to place the petitioners to the same stage in the pay-scale of Rs.37,400-67,000/- in which the juniors to the petitioners have been placed as on today.

4. As such the service details of each of the petitioners in all these petitions have been furnished by the learned Advocates for the petitioners, which have remained undisputed at the instance of the respondents. A few relevant facts taken from the Special Civil Application No. 3210 of 2016 are that the petitioner of the said petition was selected by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (for short "GPSC") in the year 2000 and appointed to the post of lecturer in English vide the Government Resolution dated 27.8.2001 issued by the Education Department. By the office order dated 5.11.2001 issued by the Commissioner of Higher Education, the petitioner was appointed as the lecturer in English in the Government Arts and Science College, Ahava. The petitioner was placed in the Lecturer (Senior Scale) with effect from 9.11.2007. According to him, he was due for placement in Lecturer (Selection Grade) w.e.f. 9.11.2012 and despite the Departmental Promotion Committee having recommended the grant of the same, the petitioner has not been put in the Selection Grade.

5. It is further case of the petitioner that after the appointment of the petitioner and others through the selection by GPSC, some 111 lecturers, who were rendering services on ad hoc basis also got appointed on regular basis through the selection by GPSC and they have been shown as juniors to the petitioners in the seniority list. As alleged in the petition, the Government in Education Department vide the Government Resolution dated 3.8.2011 (Annexure-B) allowed the ad hoc services rendered by the said 111 ad hoc lecturers prior to their regular appointment on the post (hereinafter referred to as "the subsequent appointees") to be counted for the purpose of pay, leave, and pension, subject to the conditions mentioned therein. It appears that subsequently considering the various judgments of the Supreme Court, the Government in Education Department clarified to the Commissio