Devan Ramachandran, J.

The question, proffered for our deliberation in this appeal, wears a rather simple look : Can the period of service of a teacher served in an aided or Government school prior to his/her resignation from that school to join another aided/ Government school be also taken into account while computing his/her total service and its attendant benefits?

2. Though the point looks simple, its evaluation becomes slightly knotty on account of the fact that certain specific provisions of the Kerala Education Act and Rules seem to answer it to the negative, while the various orders issued by the Government from time to time under the sanction of the afore Act and Rules appear to stipulate to the contrary, subject to certain defined criterion.

3. The brief facts of this case are set out under:

In this appeal, the State of Kerala and its functionaries of the Education Department challenge the judgment of the learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) No.25120/2012, wherein this Court allowed the writ petition filed by the first respondent herein impugning the order issued against her to recover certain sums on the allegation that her ten year higher grade fixation had been incorrectly done and that she is not entitled to the difference in pay and allowances drawn by her on account of such irregular fixation for the relevant period.

4. The facts in this case are not greatly disputed. The parties are ad idem that before the first respondent joined service as a High School Assistant (Malayalam) in the services of St.Joseph's High School, Mathilakam, she had broken spells of service in three different schools. The writ petitioner has given the details of her service in the first paragraph of the writ petition itself, which we extract for convenience of reference as under :

The service details of the petitioner are given below:

HSA (Malayalam)

18.04.1984 to 17.09.1984	GHS, Pazhayannur
01.07.1985 to 02.06.1986	Arogiamatha HS; Kottathara, Palakkad District.
02.06.1986 to 25.09.1986	Mount Carmel HS, Mananna, Tellippara.
05.01.1987 to 23.03.1987	St.Joseph's High School, Mathilakam
13.07.1987 to 02.09.1987	''
18.09.1987 to 04.12.1987	''
01.06.1988 onwards	''

As is clear from the afore details provided by the petitioner, the petitioner's service prior to joining of St.Joseph's High School, Mathilakam was broken and not continuous since she had been obviously accommodated in the respective school in leave vacancies. The sole question is whether these broken spells of non-continuous service can also be reckoned for the purpose of granting benefit of ten year higher grade to the writ petitioner/first respondent.

5. It is asserted by the first respondent that she was given the benefit of the ten year higher grade on 01.11.1996, taking into account the aforementioned three spells of broken service also. The controversy herein is not if this was proper or otherwise but whether this period could have been taken into account because there was a delay of more than 100 days in her joining the St.Joseph's High School, Mathilakam on 05.01.1987, after she resigned from the services of Mount Carmel High School at Tellippara. While the Government asserts that a break of more than one month would lead to forfeiture of all past service prior to the resignation, the first respondent asserts that this is not so on account of the provisions of the applicable Government Orders, to which she refers to in extenso.

6. The learned Single Judge, after a close examination of the materials on record and the submissions made by the learned counsel, concluded that the first respondent's challenge against the impugned order was tenable and on such basis allowed the writ petition, thus compelling the appellants herein to file this appeal.

7. We have heard Sri. E.S. Ashraf, learned Government Pleader appearing for the ap