JUDGMENT :

Rajiv Sharma, J.

Since common questions of law and facts are involved in all these Letters Patent Appeals and Civil Writ Petitions, therefore, these are taken up together and being disposed of by a common judgment.

2. The facts are being taken from Letters Patent Appeal No. 1988 of 2013, instituted against the judgment dated 31.08.2013 rendered by the learned Single Judge, in CWP No. 19915 of 2011 and analogous matters.

3. The brief facts necessary for disposal of these appeals and writ petitions are that the private respondents in LPAs and petitioners in CWPs were employees of the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Limited, Chandigarh (hereinafter referred to as "the appellant Bank' for brevity sake). The service conditions of all the employees of the appellant Bank are governed by the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Land Mortgage Banks Service (Common Cadre) Rules, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as "the Common Cadre Rules' for brevity sake).

4. According to the averments made in the LPAs, the appellant Bank is a registered Cooperative Society. It was earlier known as "Punjab State Cooperative Land Mortgage Bank Ltd.". The principle object of the appellant Bank is to provide long term loans to the farming community and to save them from the clutches of money lenders. The main funding of the appellant Bank is by way of loans from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development ("NABARD') as per the norms laid down. The appellant-Bank has two tier structure comprising of "Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Ltd." at Apex level (SADB) and the "Primary Agricultural Development Banks" (PADB) at the grass root level. These two banks ensure timely delivery of credit to approximately eight lac farmers, who are its members. The farmers are directly benefited with various schemes which provide long term and short term loans to them.

5. According to the facts enumerated in various appeals and writ petitions, the Department of Finance, Government of Punjab, vide its letter bearing U.O. No. 2368-FD BPE/SA-III-81-Policy-12 dated 22.09.1988, in pursuant to the recommendations of the Punjab Pay Commission to bring the employees serving in various Public Sector Undertakings and State Aided Institutions under the purview of the State Pension Rules, had solicited the views/comments of the concerned organisations to inter-alia communicate the additional financial burden involved in each case and whether the organistion/organisations could bear the additional liability out of their own resources. On 22.06.1989, resolution No. 24 was passed by the Administrator of the appellant Bank as under :-