O R D E R

The relief sought by the petitioner in this writ petition is to direct the respondents to grant pension and other terminal benefits to the petitioner by counting his service from 08.12.1986 as applicable to the employees of the Central Government prior to 01.01.2004 with all arrears and penal interest.

2. The case of the petitioner is that he was appointed temporarily as a driver in the Regional Rehabilitation Training Centre [Hereinafter referred to as “RRTC”] / third respondent herein on 08.12.1986. The appointment order stated that he will be paid in the scale applicable to the State Government Servants by office order dated 16.03.1988, he was absorbed in the said post of driver with effect from 08.12.1986 i.e., from the date of joining as a temporary driver and was placed on probation for a period of two years and served under the third respondent till 2004. Then he was transferred to the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped [Hereinafter referred to as “NIVH”], Regional Centre, Chennai, with the approval of the Central Government. The order dated 27.01.2004 however stated that his salary would continue to be paid by the District Rehabilitation Centre Scheme [Hereinafter referred to as “DRCS”]. While he was working in the said institute at Chennai, the Project Director DRCS sent a proposal dated 30.03.2006 to the fourth respondent to absorb him and six other staff of the PD-DRC/RRTC and this was consequent to the closure of the DRCS project. The proposal further stated that the staff would be appointed on absorption basis. In cases, where recruitment rules etc., did not provide / permit absorption, the adjustment was to be treated as direct recruitment. The proposal also said that the staff would accordingly lose their seniority but the service under DRCS would be counted for retirement benefits as per the rules of the recipient organization. The fourth respondent issued an offer of appointment dated 03.04.2006 to the petitioner for the post of driver pursuant to the letter dated 30.03.2006. The offer set out terms and conditions as follows:

(i) Appointment will be treated as fresh, (ii) Pay will be protected, (iii) Seniority will be counted from the date of joining this institute, (iv) The New Pension Scheme will apply.

The petitioner made a representation on 08.04.2006 to the respondents

1 to 4 to count his past services rendered in RRTC, Chennai and NIVH, Chennai for fixing seniority and terminal benefits under the old pension scheme. Pursuant to the offer of appointment, by an order dated 26.04.2006 he was relieved from the NIVH, Regional Centre, Chennai and approached the petitioner to report for duty to the fourth respondent. The petitioner is a sole earning member in his family and he had no other option except to join duty in the fourth respondent's office under protest, since he was relieved from NIVH vide order dated 26.04.2006, and in July 2006, he was paid the General Provident Fund amount of around Rs.2,50,000/-. The petitioner made several representations to the respondents for counting his past service for the purpose of terminal benefits and had no reply from the respondents. The petitioner attained the age of superannuation on 29.02.2012 and the superannuation identity card was also given to the petitioner which would show the 'qualifying service' as 25 years 2 months and 21 days. The petitioner made a representation 15.03.2012 to the respondents to take into account his entire service rendered in RRTC, Chennai and NIVH, Regional Centre, Chennai for fixing his terminal benefits, including his pension but no action has been taken till date. Aggrieved by the above the petitioner has come forward with the present writ petition.

3. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that on 26.03.1988 the petitioner was regularized and he was placed on probation for a period of two years on duty within a continuous period of 3 years w.e.f. 16.12.1986 FN that is from the date of sanction