Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for respondents, apart from perusing the record. Since the issue lies in a narrow compass, this Court proposes to dispose of the writ petition at the admission stage itself. 2. Briefly stated, the petitioner, having worked as a driver in the respondent Corporation (K.S.R.T.C), retired from service on 31.03.2011. He is said to have rendered more than 10 years of qualifying service to be eligible for statutory pension as per the provisions of Part III of Kerala Service Rules. It appears that, in this case, the benefit of statutory pension has not been considered on the ground that the petitioner had been on leave without allowance for more than 18 months.
WP(C) No.25618/14
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3. Under these circumstances, ventilating his grievance against non sanction of statutory pension, the petitioner is said to have submitted Ext.P7 representation before the 1st respondent. Since the same has not been disposed of by the 1st respondent expeditiously, the petitioner has filed the present writ petition.
4. The learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the issue stands squarely covered by the pronouncement of this Court in Ext.P8 judgment, which attained finality, in view of the fact that the subsequent intra-court appeal was also dismissed. Accordingly, the learned counsel has urged this Court to allow the writ petition with a positive direction to the respondent- Corporation.
5. On the other hand, the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-Corporation has submitted that the case on hand is clearly distinguishable from Ext.P8 judgment. At WP(C) No.25618/14
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any rate, the learned Standing Counsel has submitted that since Ext.P7 is pending consideration, it does not call for any adjudication of the issue on merits.
Having regard to the respective submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the Corporation, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the matter, this Court disposes of the present writ petition with a direction to the 1st respondent to consider Ext.P7 representation of the petitioner in accordance with law and pass appropriate orders thereon, as expeditiously as possible, at any rate, within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment.
DAMA SESHADRI NAIDU, JUDGE
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