Water Supply and Sanitation of the State Government by itself cannot be the basis for grant of such benefits. In this regard, reference can be made to the recent decision in Bhagwan & Others (supra) wherein the Hon’ble Supreme Court considered the issue as to whether employees of the Water and Land Management Institute were entitled to pensionary benefits at par with the State Government employees. It was noticed that the said Institute was an independent autonomous body and distinct from the Water Resources Department of the State Government. While providing for the pensionary benefits, the Governing Council of the Institute had not adopted the Maharashtra Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1982 and a request made in that regard by the employees of the Institute had not been accepted by the State Government. It was observed that the decision to grant certain benefits to employees or not is a matter to be left to the expert body or the concerned undertaking and such decision that could have a cascading effect alongwith adverse financial consequences should not be taken easily. It is also necessary to note that a somewhat similar prayer was considered by this Court in Rajaram Narayanrao Vithalkar & Others (supra). In the said writ petition filed by employees of the MJP which included the petitioner no.2 herein, parity was sought in the matter of pay structures or the date from which such benefit could be made applicable. By observing that these matters depend upon the financial position of the employer, relief was not granted. In the present case, it is seen from the impugned communication dated 23.01.2020 that the Finance Department had not
