COMMON ORDER

The writs on hand has been instituted to quash the Government Order issued in G.O.Ms.No. 77 Rural Development Department dated 12.07.2013, and direct the respondents to count 50 percent of the services rendered by the petitioners in the post of part time panchayat clerk along with their regular services.

2. The petitioners were initially appointed as part time panchayat clerk on 16.03.1979, 01.09.1979 & 01.02.1984 respectively and served as such up to 25.12.1990, 26.12.1990 & 07.03.1999. Thereafter, they were appointed as Junior Assistant on regular basis and retired from service on 31.03.2017 and 30.04.2017. It is not in dispute that the regular services of the writ petitioners in the post of junior assistant from 26.12.1990 to 31.03.2017, 27.12.1990 to 31.03.2017 and 08.03.1999 to 30.04.2017 respectively and was taken into consideration as qualifying services for the purpose of grant of pension and accordingly the writ petitioners are receiving pension under the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules 1978.

3. The grievances of the writ petitioners are that the services rendered by them as part time panchayat clerks was not taken into consideration for the purpose of recurring the 50% of qualifiying services under Rule 11 (4) of the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978. Thus the petitioners are constrained to challenge the Government Order issued in G.O.Ms. No. 77, restricting the part time panchayat clerk from availing the benefits of 50 % counting of the services.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioners mainly contended that the similar relief has been granted in favour of other persons based on the orders of the High Court, Madurai Bench in G.O.Ms. No. 99 Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (E5) Department dated 27.08.2022. When the similar relief is granted to the other persons, and the said benefit should be extended to the writ petitioners also.

5. In this regard, with reference to the Government Order issued in G.O.Ms. No. 77 and G.O.Ms.No.39 Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department dated 13.06.2011, this court has elaborately considered the scope of extending the benefit of counting of the 50 % of the services to part time panchayat clerks. In W.P.No. 9562 of 2014 dated 20.07.2012 , the relevant paragraphs are extracted hereunder : 6. The respondents relied on Rule 11(2) of the Pension Rules, which is added as per G.O.Ms.No.283, Finance (Pension) Department, dated 15.04.1996, which reads as under:-

Rule 11(2): "Half of the service paid from contingencies shall be allowed to count towards qualifying service for pension along with regular subject to the following conditions:

(i) Service paid from contingencies shall be in a job involving whole time employment and not part-

time for a portion of the day.

(ii) Service paid from contingencies shall be in a type of work or job for which regular posts could have been sanctioned, for example Chowkidar.

(iii) Service shall be for which the payment is made out on monthly or daily rates computed and paid on a monthly basis and which though not analogous to the regular scale of pay, shall bear some relation in the matter of pay to those being paid for similar jobs being performed by staff in regular establishments.

(iv) Service paid from contingencies shall be continuous and followed by absorption in regular employment without a break.

(v) Subject to the above conditions being fulfilled, the weightage for past service paid from contingencies shall be limited to the period after the 1st January 1961 for which authentic records of service may be available.

(vi) Pension or revised pension admissible as the case shall be paid from the 23rd June 1988." 7. The Government in G.O.(Ms.) No.408, Finance (Pay Cell) Department, dated 25.08.2009 has issued the following instructions under which 50% of the services rendered in non- provincialised establishment/ Service under consolidated pay, Honorarium and Daily Wages can be taken into account for calculation of pensionary benefit of those who were abs