Devan Ramachandran, J.

1. The innate facet in these appeals for our consideration is, in fact, confined to very narrow environ, namely, whether the prior service of the writ petitioners/appellants served by them in aided private colleges would deserve to be reckoned and taken into account while determining their pensionary benefits consequent to their superannuation/retirement from Government colleges, which they joined after serving the private aided colleges.

2. The learned Single Judge, after taking careful stock of all the facts presented before her has concluded against the contentions of the petitioners and has found that since there are specific statutory prescriptions in the Kerala Service Rules (hereinafter referred to as 'KSR'), which go to impose conditions while construing such service, no relief can be granted contrary to such statutorily ingrained terms.

3. The learned Single Judge, of course, has, in the judgments impugned, noticed and adhered to the provisions of Rule 14 E, Part III of the KSR, and since an effective exposition on the issues herein twirl on the interpretation to be adopted to this Rule, we deem it appropriate to extract Rule 14 E of the KSR as under:

“14E. (a) Aided School Service put in by Government employees prior to entry in Government service qualifies. Takes effect from 24th January 1968.

(b) Aided private college service, both teaching and non-teaching, of Government employees prior to their entry in Government service shall qualify for pensionary benefits, subject to the following conditions, namely:-

(i) The actual period of regular full time service rendered from the date of actual introduction of Direct Payment System in the aided private college shall be counted

(ii) Service rendered prior to the introduction of Direct Payment System in any aided private college shall be counted only for the period of those incumbents who have been paid salary under grant-in-aid scheme introduced with effect from 1965

(iii) In cases of resignation of the appointment in private college service for the purpose of taking up appointment in Government, break, if any, between the private college service and the Government service shall not exceed the joining time admissible under the service rules, plus public holidays. Service prior to resignation for other purposes shall not be counted.

(iv) The Government contribution if any, to their Provident Fund Account in respect of their aided private college service shall be refunded to Government

(v) The Management's share of contribution if any in Provident Fund Account in respect of aided private college staff shall be credited to Government. In such cases, a certificate in the following form shall be recorded in the Service Book by the Head of Institution in which the incumbent had worked duly countersigned by the Head of the Department.

“Certified that the Governments'/Managements' share of contribution with interest thereon which should otherwise have gone to the employee has not been/shall not be paid to him/her but has been/shall be credited to Government."

The certificate regarding the crediting of Managers' contribution is not necessary when contributions are to be paid back to the Management under rules.

(vi) For counting the aided private college service, a certificate in the following form shall be recorded in the Service Book by the Head of the Institution in which the incumbent had worked duly countersigned by the Head of the Department.

“Service has been verified with reference to the initial records such as attendance registers, acquittance rolls, pay bills etc., and is qualifying for pension.”

(c) Regular full time Government service of aided private college staff and aided private school staff prior to their entry in aided private college service and aided private school service shall be counted for pension for such service.”

4. The core issue in this horde of appeals, which number over 19 are certainly common. The factual factors and forensic circu