Surya Kant, J.

1 This order shall dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 14238, 14239 of 1991, 1087 of 1992, 9818 of 1994, 2190 of 2004, 15840 of 2009 and 3477 of 2010, as common questions of law and facts are involved in these cases.

2 The issue that arises for consideration is as to whether the service rendered by a Teacher/Master in a Government Aided Privately Managed School, is countable towards the pensionary benefits on his retirement from the Government service ?

3 For brevity, the facts are being extracted from Civil Writ Petition No. 14238 of 1991.

4 This writ petition has been filed by 120 Teachers/Masters serving in various Government Schools run by the Education Department, Government of Punjab. Their precise claim is that before joining the Government service, they had rendered services in the Government Aided Privately Managed Schools against the posts duly sanctioned under the Grant-in-Aid Scheme in terms whereof, the State Government provides 75% to 95% grant-in-aid to the Institutions towards salary and other expenditure incurred by the Schools. The dates of their appointments or the posts held by them in Government-Aided- Schools, the dates when they were re