The central legal point established in the judgment is the entitlement of a petitioner to have prior aided school service reckoned for computing pensionable service, especially when prior collegiate education service has been acknowledged, based on the specific legal provisions and the protection of relevant statutes.

1. Grievance of the petitioner is with regard to the rejection of the claim to count the previous aided school service rendered by him for computing the period of qualifying service so as to grant pension on his retirement as Selection Grade Lecturer from service w.e.f. 31.03.2008.

2. The case of the petitioner is that, he joined service as lecturer in St. Stephan college, Uzhavoor on 07.06.1993 and while serving as Selection Grade Lecturer in the Department of Economics, he retired from service. At the time of appointment, the said college was affiliated to the Kerala University and subsequently, by virtue of bifurcation, giving rise to MG University, St. Stephen college got affiliated to M.G. University. At the time of retirement, the petitioner was having continuous service of 14 years 5 months and 23 days, which is from 07.06.1993 to 31.03.2008. But prior to that, the petitioner was having temporary collegiate service of 4 years 10 months (3 spells) and aided school service for a period of 5 years 3 months 13 days (eight spells). By virtue of this, according to the petitioner, pension was to be reckoned with a total service of 24 years 7 months 6 months (rounded to 25 years), which was not positively considered by the respondents.

3. Challenging the impugned orders passed by the concerned authorities, the petitioner had approached this Court earlier, by filing W.P.(C) No. 23987 of 2009, which was disposed of as per Ext. P1 judgment. As discernible from Ext. P1, the specific case projected by the petitioner was that, by virtue of Rule 14E of Part III KSR, read with Statute No. 5 (1) of Chapter II of the Kerala University First Statutes 1976, the claim of the petitioner was liable to be allowed. It was in the said circumstances, that the rule position was extracted by this Court in Ext. P1 judgment, directing the concerned authority to look into the matter and finalize it in accordance with law.

4. Pursuant to Ext. P1 judgment, the matter was considered by the second respondent, who passed Ext. P7 Government Order dated 09.05.2012, holding that Rule 14E Part III KSR was not applicable to the case of the petitioner as he was a private aided college teacher and that the said Rule was applicable only to a Government teacher. Though the petitioner filed a review petition, the same did not yield any positive result, which made the petitioner to approach this Court by way of present writ petition.

5. A counter affidavit has been filed by the 3rd respondent, virtually seeking to reiterate the stand as reflected from Ext. P7, to the effect that Rule 14 E Part III KSR is not applicable to the case of the petitioner, he not being a Government employee. It is brought to the notice of this Court by the learned Government Pleader that the petitioner has already been given the benefit in respect to tenure pertaining to 'collegiate education service', prior to the regular appointment (different spells), as discernible from Ext. P11 itself and that the objection is only with regard to reckoning of the prior 'aided school service'.

6. There is no dispute with regard to the fact that the petitioner was provisionally appointed in the concerned college, when it was affiliated to the Kerala University. By virtue of Statute 5(1) of Chapter II of the Kerala University First Statutes 1976, provisions of the KSR were to govern the field if service conditions of the employees in the institutions affiliated to the Kerala University, which reads as follows:

"5(1) Kerala Service Rules to apply to teachers who retire at the age of 55 years : The teachers who retire at the age of 55 shall be entitled to receive the same pensionary benefits as are allowed to similar categories of teachers in Government Colleges including family pension and death-cum-retirement gratuity and all the conditions for the grant of these benefits applicable to Government Servants laid down in Part II of the Kerala Service Rules (as amended from time to time) shall mutatis mut