JUDGMENT :

Rastogi, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Civil Appeals @ SLP(Civil) Nos. 1940-1941 of 2020 and the cognate appeals arise from the self-same common judgment dated 29th July, 2019 and 4th October, 2019 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh.

3. The facts have been noticed by this Court from Civil Appeals @ SLP(Civil) Nos.1940-1941 of 2020.

4. The appellant in the present batch of appeals, is the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Bank’), a registered cooperative society and connected Civil Appeal @ Special Leave Petition (Civil) No.12864 of 2020 has been preferred by the serving employees of the bank who also claim to be aggrieved by the selfsame impugned judgment in the proceedings. At the same time, the respondents are the original writ petitioners who are the retired employees and the service conditions of the employees are governed by the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Land Mortgage Banks Service (Common Cadre) Rules, 1978(hereinafter being referred to as the “Rules 1978