1. The common relief sought for in all these batch of writ petitions is to calculate 50% of the services rendered by the writ petitioners in the respective post as part time/temporary/casual in Government Departments for the purpose of counting the qualifying services in order to grant pension under Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978.

2. The grievances advanced in these writ petitions are that the Government amended Rule 11 of the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules in respect of qualifying service and the amended Rule is extracted hereunder :

Rule 11-QUALIFYING SERVICE

1. "Commencement of qualifying service – {(1}) Subject to the provisions of these rules, qualifying service of a Government servant shall commence from the date he taken charge of the post to which he is first appointed either substantively or in an officiating or temporary capacity. In the case of a Government servant retiring on or after the 1st October. 1969,2{.....} temporary or officiating service in a pensionable post whether rendered in a regular capacity or not shall count in full as qualifying service even it is not followed by confirmation.

(2) Half of the service paid from contingencies shall be allowed to count towa