Government cannot discriminate between staff of different aided colleges regarding counting past service for benefits under the Direct Payment System.

JUDGMENT

These petitioners are either continuing or retired from the service of aided Homoeopathic Medical Colleges in the State. They entered in the service of the colleges prior to implementation of Direct Payment System . The present dispute in these Writ Petitions is with regard to the past service rendered by them prior to the introduction of Direct Payment System . The agreement rendered by the Government with the aided college management stipulates as follows : “18. The Government shall not be liable for any claims of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the institution towards the pay and allowances of Provident Fund or Gratuity or any other account whatsoever in respect of any period prior to January, 2000 except and to the extent herein provided.”

2. I am not adverting to the dates of each agreement for the reason that the common issue in these cases whether past service rendered by the petitioners in the aided colleges prior to the introduction of Direct Payment System can be reckoned for service benefits and pensionary benefits or not is issue to be decided in these cases.

3. The petitioners' case is that the Government departed from its policy as to the counting of past service of such teaching and W.P.(C) Nos.11597/2008, 14042/2009 & 16437/2009 ::2::

non-teaching staff of all other colleges in the State except to the aided homoeopathic colleges. In other words, the argument is that the Government reckoned past service of teaching and non-teaching staff of all other institutions with which the Government entered into an agreement and gave the benefit of past service to such teaching and non-teaching staff they rendered in such institutes/colleges. The petitioners in Writ Petition No.11597 of 2008, who retired from the service of ANSS Homoeo Medical College, Kurichy, produced Exhibit- P27 to show that the Government had departed from the agreement in granting service benefits to the employees of Vaidyraratnam Ayurveda College and Hospital, Ollur, prior to the introduction of Direct Payment System . The same petitioners also point out to the communication of Accountant General to the Government showing the differential treatment made to the Homoeopathic Colleges with reference to the granting of past benefits to the other aided colleges in the State. This communication also affirms that the Government had departed from Clause-18 as referred in the Direct Payment agreement. Apart from that the Writ Petitioners in W.P.(C) No.14042 of 2009 also produced Exhibit- P19, an information received under the Right to Education Act from the Higher Education Department (J3) wherein the petitioners were informed that all Private Engineering Colleges except M.A.College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, have availed grant-in-aid before W.P.(C) Nos.11597/2008, 14042/2009 & 16437/2009 ::3::

implementing Directing Payment System and all existing staff of Private Engineering Colleges were protected with respect to their service and posts held while fixing staff in the colleges for implementing Direct Payment System . It was also informed that the staff of Private Engineering Colleges were given the benefits of weightage by counting their past service before the implementation of Direct Payment System while fixing of pay on subsequent pay revision. It was further informed that pensionary benefits of the staff members of Private Engineering Colleges were also reckoned based on their previous service before implementing Direct Payment System . All these clearly points out that the Government consciously departed from their agreement and taken a policy to count past service of the employees such as teachers as well as non-teaching staff rendered prior to the implementation of Direct Payment System . The question is whether the petitioners can be singled out for granting such benefits.

4. It is to be noted that all teaching and non-teaching staff covered by Direct Payment System would form into a single class for the purpose of benefit