JUDGMENT :

Petitioners, in these writ petitions, were appointed in recognized Junior High Schools, which were not receiving any financial aid from the State Government at the relevant point of time. Token grant of Rs. 1,00,000/- was given to those Schools vide Government Order dated 24.05.2005. Those Schools were subsequently included in the grant-in-aid list by the State Government vide order dated 30.03.2007. According to petitioners, since token grant was given to the schools where they were serving, vide Government Order dated 24.05.2005, and New Pension Scheme was introduced only w.e.f. 01.10.2005, therefore, petitioners are entitled to benefit of Old Pension Scheme, as they came to be appointed in government aided schools much earlier, i.e. on 24.05.2005.

2. Since common questions of law and fact are involved in these writ petitions, therefore are being taken up together and are being decided by this common judgment. However, for the sake of brevity, facts of Writ Petition (S/S) No. 1839 of 2017 alone are being considered.

3. Harish Singh Bisht has filed Writ Petition (S/S) No.1839 of 2017, seeking the following substantive reliefs:

“i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nat