The main legal point established in the judgment is that employees of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board, being governed by the rules and regulations applicable to State Government employees, are entitled to the benefit of the enhanced retirement age from 58 to 60 years, and the notices of retirement issued to the petitioners were quashed.

JUDGMENT

Dr. B.R. Sarangi, J. - W.P.(C) No.7460 of 2019, in which the petitioner is working as a Senior Stenographer in the office of the OISIP, JICA, has been filed seeking following reliefs:-

".........(i) To quash the impugned notice of retirement dated 29.03.2019 issued by the opposite party no.4 vide Annexure-14.

(ii) To direct the opposite parties more particularly the opposite partyno.1 to allow the petitioner to continue till attainment of 60 years at par with the State Government employees in view of the provisions of Section 71(a) of the Orissa Service Code read with Clause-12 read with Clause-12 of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board Regulation, 1992.

(iii) To direct the opposite parties to grant all service and consequential benefits to the petitioner."

Similarly, W.P.(C) No.7461 of 2019, the petitioner of which is working as a receptionist in the office of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board, has been filed seeking following reliefs:-

"....... (i) To direct the opposite parties more particularly the opposite partyno.1 to allow the petitioner to continue till attainment of 60 years at par with the State Government employees in view of the provisions of Section 71(a) of the Orissa Service Code read with Clause-12 read with Clause-12 of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board Regulation, 1992.

(ii) To direct the opposite parties to grant all service and consequential benefits to the petitioner." Likewise, W.P.(C) No. 7462 of 2019, in which the petitioner is working as Senior Executive Assistant under the Project Engineering, PMU, Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board, has been filed seeking following reliefs:-

".........(i) To quash the impugned notice of retirement dated 29.03.2019 issued by the opposite party no.4 vide Annexure-14.

(ii) To direct the opposite parties more particularly the opposite partyno.1 to allow the petitioner to continue till attainment of 60 years at par with the State Government employees in view of the provisions of Section 71(a) of the Orissa Service Code read with Clause-12 read with Clause-12 of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board Regulation, 1992.

(iii) To direct the opposite parties to grant all service and consequential benefits to the petitioner."

All the three writ petitions have been filed by the employees of Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board with similar reliefs. Therefore, they are heard together and disposed of by this common judgment which will govern in all the three cases.

2. The factual matrix of the case, in brief, is that Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB) (hereinafter referred to as the 'Board') has been constituted under Orissa Act 12 of 1991, i.e., the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board Act, 1991 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act, 1991"), which was published in the Orissa Gazette notification dated 4th June, 1991. For regulating the service conditions of the employees of the Board, no separate rules have been framed. After enactment of the Act, 1991, Housing and Urban Development Department issued a notification on 16.08.1993 framing regulation which is called as "Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board Regulations, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations, 1992"). So far as salaries, allowances and conditions of service of the of the employees of the Board are concerned, the same are governed under clause-12 of the Regulations, 1992, which clearly provide that the employees are governed by the rules and regulations framed at par with the State government employees. The petitioners were appointed by the Board in exercise of powers conferred under Section 9(1) of the Act, 1991 read with clause-21(1) of the Regulations, 1992. As such, the petitioners were discharging their duties and responsibilities assigned to them by the Board.

2.1 The Addl. Chief Secretary to Government of Odisha, Finance Department issued a resolution vide notification dated 28.06.2014 in which the age of superannuation of the State Government employees w