The central legal point established in the judgment is that the services of gangmen are governed by the Rules applicable to work-charged and contingency paid employees, and the age of superannuation is 62 years as for other Class IV employees of the State Government.

( 1 ) THIS matter is referred to the Full Bench as a single Judge of this Court found that there are conflicting judgments of two Division benches of this Court on the question - Whether a Gangman can be retired before attaining the age of 62 years. The Division Bench of this court in the order passed in Letters Patent appeal No. 51 2004, State of Madhya Pradesh v. Bharosi, decided on October 27, 2004 has laid down that a Gangman cannot be retired before attaining the age of 62 years. A similar view is taken by another Division Bench of this court in the case of State of Madhya Pradesh v. Bhajanlal, 2004 (3) MPHT 143 (DB), while in another case i. e. Writ Petition No. 5484 of 2002, Gulab Singh v. State of M. P. , delivered on February 10, 2005 a Division Bench of this court at the Main Seat at Jabalpur has laid down Gangman can be retired before completion of 62 years of his age. As there is a conflict of judgments on the aforesaid question the matter is referred to this Full bench for opinion as to which of those judgments lays the correct law.

( 2 ) FROM perusal of the judgments in the cases of State of Madhya Pradesh v. Bhajanlal (supra) it appears that these judgments lay down that the services of Gangmen are governed by the Rules, namely, Madhya pradesh Public Works Department Work-charged and Contingency Paid Employees recruitment and Conditions of Service Rules, 1976, hereinafter referred to as 1976 Rules' and hence they cannot be retired before attaining the age of 62 years, while in the case of Gulab Singh's case (supra) the Division bench has laid down that the services of a gangman are not covered by the said Rules and, therefore, the State Government by framing a policy can retire them even before attaining the age of 62 years.

( 3 ) THE petitioners before this Court are working as Gangmen for a large number of years though they are appointed as daily rated employees. It is an admitted position that these petitioners are getting monthly salary. Annexure P-1 (1) filed in Writ Petition No. 1693/2005 shows that the petitioner in the petition was appointed as Gangman on January 1, 1975 and he was retired by the said order w. e. f. June 30, 2005 i. e. he has worked for nearly thirty years on the said post.

( 4 ) SHRI S. B. Mishra, learned Additional advocate General, could not dispute before this court that all these employees- petitioners were paid salary on monthly basis. Rule 2 of the 1976 rules deals with the definitions. Rule 2 (b)defines the words "contingency-Paid employee" which reads as under:"2 (b) Contingency-Paid Employee" means a person employed for full time in an office or establishment and who is paid on monthly basis and whose pay is charged to "office contingencies", excluding the employees who are employed for certain periods only in the year;"as per the aforesaid definition contingency paid employees means a person employed for the full time in an office or establishment and who is paid on monthly basis and whose pay is charged to office contingencies. However, the employees who are employed for certain limited period only in the year and are excluded from the said definition.

( 5 ) FROM a bare reading of Annexure p-1 (1) it is clear that the petitioners in the present petitions are not employed for a limited period in a year, but they have continuously worked for nearly thirty years.

( 6 ) ANOTHER definition which is important in the present case is the definition of the words "workcharged Employee". Rule 2 (h) of the aforesaid Rules defines the words "work-charged Employee", which reads as under:"2 (h) "workcharged Employee" means a person employed upon the actual execution, as distinct from general supervision of a specified work or upon subordinate supervision of departmental labour, store, running and repairs of electrical equipment and machinery in connection with such work, excluding the daily-paid labour and muster roll employed on the work. "as per the said definition W