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Petitioners have approached this Court by way of instant writ petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, seeking a writ in the nature of certiorari/mandamus for setting aside order dated 16.11.2012 (P-17) and further prayer is for issuance of direction to the respondents to grant the benefit of entire length of service rendered by the petitioners in HSMITC for the purpose of grant of ACP i.e benefit of pay scale of Rs.7500-13000.

Petitioners were appointed as Junior Engineers in the Haryana State Minor Irrigation Tubewell Corporation (for short GAURAV ARORA 'HSMITC') on regular basis between the period from 1975 to 1979 and they were sent on deputation in Rural Development and Panchayat Department, Haryana Chandigarh in the year 1996 and were absorbed in that department itself, vide Annexure P-1 and at the time of absorption, the terms and conditions in the appointment letter envisaged that they shall be governed by the terms and conditions set forth. Copy of the order of deputation of petitioners is 01.02.1996 (P-2) and copy of absorption of the petitioners is dated 05.02.2001 (P-3). The pay protection and other monetary benefits were granted to the petitioners but as far as seniority is concerned, it was held that they will be given seniority from the date they joined the Rural Development and Panchayat Department, vide office order dated 20.01.2003 (P-4). Thereafter, Government of Haryana issued notification dated 07.08.1992 wherein it was stipulated that persons who completed 8/18 years of service would be granted additional increments. This was followed by notifications for grant of HSS/ACP relief's on completion of 10/20 years of service. Some of the persons of HSMITC were granted the benefit of previous service, but the same was withdrawn and CWP Nos. 1739, 1740 and 3855 of 1995 were filed by the petitioners praying that the respondents be restrained from withdrawing the said benefit and quashing of the said decision. Vide judgment dated 31.05.1995, this Court allowed the case in favour of the petitioners. In compliance of the above mentioned judgment, respondent No. 3 vide letter dated 16.04.1996 granted the additional increment incorporating the service rendered in HSMITC. Petitioners were also granted the advance increments for promotional scale w.e.f the date of their entitlement by counting their service rendered in HSMITC and their pay was accordingly fixed. They were also extended the benefit of 1st ACP after computing length of service rendered in HSMITC and even petitioners were extended the benefit of 18 years of service.

Now the impugned order dated 16.11.2012 has been passed rejecting the claim of the petitioners On notice, a written statement has been filed on behalf of respondent No. 2 stating therein that petitioner Surinder Singh and 8 others have joined the Rural Development and Panchayat Department, Haryana Chandigarh as Junior Engineers on deputation basis from HSMITC w.e.f 13.02.1996 and they were appointed as Junior Engineers afresh on temporary basis by way of transfer vide order dated 05.02.2001 in the pay scale of Rs.5500-9000 vide letter dated 06.09.2001 with retrospective effect i.e. 13.02.1996 as per the terms and conditions of the appointments in which it was stated that their seniority will be determined from the date they joined the department and no benefit of past service towards seniority will be given and they are only entitled to pay protection drawn by them in HSMITC. These terms and conditions have been accepted by the petitioners.

Petitioners filed CWP No. 14133 of 2010 for quashing order dated 19.03.2010 and letter dated 17.10.2010 vide which the benefit accrued to the petitioners and others are sought to be withdrawn. Further they are seeking direction to the respondents to grant the benefit of entire length of service rendered by them in HSMITC as granted in Deepak Sood's case. This Court disposed of the writ petition on 19.04.2012 filed by the petitioners by giving direction to respondent No. 1 to consider the claim of the petitioners in the light of Supreme Court judgment in Civil Appeal No. 4446 of 2008 i.e State of Haryana v. Deepak Sood and others, decided on 15.07.2008 and Haryana State Minor Irrigation Tube Well Corporation and others v. G.S. Uppal and others, 2008 (3) SCT 506, within a period of two months and further respondents were directed to convey the decision to the petitioners.

Reference at this stage can be made to a Division Bench judgment titled as Harinder Kumar, J.E and others vs. State of Haryana and others, passed in CWP No. 1739 of 1995, decided on 31.05.1995 whereby petitioners were seeking direction to the respondents restraining them from effecting recovery of increments granted to them after they had completed 8/18 years of service. This Court held that respondents are held liable to take into account the service rendered by the petitioners in HSMITC as their services were not terminated rather they along with their services were transferred to Public Health Department where they were absorbed. Reference has been made to case of G. Govinda Rajulu v. The Andhra Pradesh State Construction Corporation Ltd, AIR 1987 SC 1801, which has been followed by this Court in Haryana Taneries Employees Union (Regd.) Jind, Haryana vs. State of Haryana and another, 1998 (1) SLR 284 and this Court directed the respondents to take retrenched employees either as Class IV employees or other managerial staff in the Government Corporations or Boards according to the qualifications of each of the employees and their fitness. The retrenched employees were also held entitled for counting of their service rendered by them in the Haryana Tanneries Ltd in case they are appointed in pensionable jobs for the purpose of pension and other retiral benefits.