The main legal point established in the judgment is that the entire past services of daily-wagers, where they completed 240 days of continuous service, qualified for pension, as interpreted from Section 25B of the Industrial Disputes Act and the Government Resolution dated 17.10.1988.

ORDER :

1. Rule returnable forthwith. Mr. Kurven Desai, learned Assistant Government Pleader waives service of notice of Rule for the respondent-State while Mr. Shastri, learned counsel waives service of notice of Rule for the respondent.

2. With the consent of the learned advocates for the respective parties, all these petitions are taken up for final hearing today.

3. In these petitions, the petitioners have prayed to direct the respondent authorities to pay the pension and amount of leave encashment, difference of amount of gratuity etc. The petitioners had been engaged with the respondent No. 2-Panchayat as Daily Wagers from the year 1979 and 1980. It is their case that after having rendered 32 years of service, they are not being paid pension and/or gratuity on the ground that they have not completed qualifying service for the purposes of pension. It is the case of the petitioners that they were granted the benefit of GR dated 17.10.1988 on completion of ten years of service.

4. It is the case of the learned counsel for the petitioners that in view of the decision dated 1.4.2022 rendered by this Court in SCA No. 11624 of 2020, the petitioners are entitled to the pensionary benefits. The order reads as under:

“1. Heard learned advocates for the parties.

2. The prayer of the petitioners is to direct the respondents to revise the pension as well as gratuity calculating the same from the date of initial appointment of the petitioners along with arrears. The second prayer of the petitioners is to direct the respondents to release the benefits of 300 days un-availed privilege leave in favour of the petitioners as envisaged in the Government Resolution dated 17.10.1988 with interest.

3. The facts in brief would indicate that the petitioners were working with the respondents herein for more than three decades. Pension payment orders have been annexed to the petition which would indicate that for the purposes of counting pension from the date of completion of ten years, the date of regularization has been taken into consideration for the purpose of pension.

4. Mr. Krishnan Ghavariya, learned advocate appearing for the petitioners would submit that the issue has now been decided by a Division Bench of this Court in the case of Executive Engineer, Panchayat (Maa & M) Department vs. Samudabhai Jyotibhai Bhedi, 2017 (4) GLR 2952. Mr. Ghavariya would also rely on a decision of the co-ordinate bench of this court dated 19.12.2018 rendered in Special Civil Application No. 9702 of 2018 and allied matters. Learned advocate would also draw the attention of the Court to an order dated 21.08.2019 rendered in Special Civil Application No. 11086 of 2019, wherein, the said decision has been considered.

5. Mr. H.S. Munshaw, learned advocate appearing for respondents no. 2 to 4 would submit that there is nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner has completed 240 days in each year of service from the initial date of appointment till they completed ten years of service and so as to get the benefits of the resolution dated 17.10.1988.

6. Para 5 of the order dated 21.08.2019 passed in Special Civil Application No. 11086 of 2019 reads as under:

“5. In Executive Engineer, Panchayat vs. Samudabhai Jyotibhai Phedi, 2017 (4) GLR 2952, the Division Bench has laid down, upholding the decision of the learned Single Judge, that the past services of the daily-wagers where they have completed 240 days of continuous service as per Section 25B of the Industrial Disputes Act, would qualify for pension.

5.1 The Division Bench in Samudabhai Jyotibhai Phedi (supra) noticed the provisions of the Resolution dated 17th October, 1988 with reference to the nature of benefits flowing therefrom, in paragraph 6 of the judgment stating as under:

“6. As is well known, under Government Resolution dated 17.10.1988, the Government decided to grant benefits of regularization and permanency to daily rated workers who had completed more than 10 years of actual service prior to such date,