J U D G M E N T

A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.

The Life Insurance Corporation of India [LIC] and its Senior Divisional Manager are the appellants before us aggrieved by the common judgment dated 25.8.2022 of a learned Single Judge in W.P. (C).No.32144 of 2017 and connected cases. The brief facts necessary for disposal of these writ appeals are as follows:

The writ petitioners were ex-servicemen who got appointment in the LIC in the cadre of Assistants. Their appointments were through direct recruitment against a quota earmarked for ex-servicemen. After their discharge from the Defence service, they were appointed as Assistants in the LIC on various dates between 2009 and 2010, and at the time of their joining service of LIC, their pay was fixed by reckoning their last drawn defence salary in the manner stipulated under the O.M's issued by the Central Government in the Department of Personnel and Training, and thereafter other allowances such as Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, City Compensatory & 1941 OF 2022 Allowance etc. were added thereto to arrive at the gross salary payable to them. The writ petitioners were drawing the said salary till

2017.

2. In 2017, a re-fixation of t