K.S. Kunhumon vs Guruvayoor Devaswom, Administrator Guruvayoor Devaswom and Deputy Director of Local Fund Audit

C.T. Ravikumar, J.—The petitioner is a retiree from the service of Guruvayoor Devaswom. He retired from its service on 31.1.2001 while working as Watchman. This writ petition has been filed mainly seeking for the following reliefs:-

(a) declare that the NMR service rendered by petitioner for the period from 11.10.1977 to 6.6.1979 i.e. till his regular appointment is liable to be reckoned towards qualifying service along with his regular service, for the purpose of pensionary benefits in the light of the decisions of respondents 1 and 2 including Ext. P4 and P5 and the judgments in W.P. (C) 4408/08, 11816/2011, 11702/12, 28013/12, etc;

(b) issue a writ of mandamus or other appropriate writ, order, or direction commanding the respondents to sanction the pensionary benefits due to petitioner reckoning his qualifying service from 11-10-1977 to 6-7-1979 also along with his regular service from 7.7.1979 and to revise, re-fix, re-compute and disburse all the benefits due to him accordingly, along with arrears.

In the light of the order passed in I.A. No. 7592 of 2013 the period mentioned in prayers (a) and (b) as extracted above has to stand corrected as ''from 1.5.1977 to 6.7.1979'' instead of ''from 11.10.1977 to 6.7.1979''. Therefore, essentially the prayer of the petitioner is for reckoning his NMR service from 1.5.1977 to 6.7.1979 as qualifying service for the purpose of pensionary benefits. When this matter is taken up for consideration the learned counsel on both sides submitted that the issue involved in this writ petition is squarely covered by the decision of this Court in Ext. P5 judgment in W.P. (C) No. 11816 of 2011 dated 19.1.2012 and also by the judgment dated 17.12.2012 in W.P. (C) No. 28013 of 2012. Evidently, as per Ext. P5 and the judgment in W.P. (C) No. 28013 of 2012 similar grievances of similarly situated persons were redressed by this Court and appropriate directions to reckon the NMR service put in by such persons for the purpose of pensionary benefits were given. Following the decisions referred supra, I am of the view that this writ petition can be disposed of with a direction to the respondents to reckon the NMR service put in by the petitioner from 1.5.1977 to 6.7.1979 as qualifying service for the purpose of computing pension and other retiral benefits. Ordered accordingly. The pension and other retiral benefits due to the petitioner shall be computed and appropriate orders shall be passed expeditiously, at any rate, within a period of two months from the date of receipt of copy of this judgment.