23. Transfer of [certain] Government employees to [the Authority].- (1) On and after the establishment of [the Authority], the State Government may, from time to time, direct that the services of such of the existing officers and servants of the State Government in the Maharashtra Environmental Engineering Service, [who belong to the categories of officers and servants referred to in entries (1) and (2) in clause (xiii) of section 2 and] who in its opinion, are rendered surplus to its requirements, shall stand terminated and their posts shall stand abolished, from such date as may be specified by it (hereinafter in this section referred to as "the appointed date") and shall on that date (which may be different for different officers and servants) become the officers or servants of [the Authority].
(2) Every permanent or temporary employee of the Maharashtra Environmental Engineering Service in respect of whom a direction is issued under sub-section (1) shall, on and from the appointed date, be a permanent or temporary employee of [the Authority], as the case may be against a permanent or temporary post, which shall stand created in the establishment of [the Authority] with effect from the appointed date.
(3) Any officer or servant so transferred shall hold his office under [the Authority] by the same tenure, at the same remuneration and upon the same other conditions of service and with the same rights and privileges as to pension, gratuity, provident fund and other matters as he would have held on the appointed date if this Act had not come into force. Any service rendered by him under the State Government shall be deemed to be service rendered under [the Authority]. He shall continue to serve under [the Authority] until his employment under [the Authority] is duly terminated or his remuneration or other conditions of service are duly revised or altered by [the Authority] in pursuance of the law which for the time being governs his conditions of service:
Provided that, the conditions of service applicable immediately before the appointed date to the case of any such Officer or servant shall not be varied to his disadvantage, except with the previous approval of the State Government.
(4) The sums standing to the credit of the employees referred to in sub-section (1) in any pension, provident fund, gratuity or other like funds constituted for them shall be transferred by the State Government to [the Authority] along with any accumulated interest due till the appointed date and with the accounts relating to such funds. On and after the appointed date [the Authority] shall, to the exclusion of the State Government, be liable for payment of pension, provident fund, gratuity or other like sums as may be payable to such employees at the appropriate time in accordance with the conditions of their service.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (XIV of 1947), or in any other law for the time being in force, the transfer of services of any employee to [the Authority] under sub-section (1) shall not entitle any such employee to any compensation under that Act or such other law and no such claim shall be entertained by any Court, tribunal or authority.
(6) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) shall apply to any employee who by notice in writing given to the State Government within two months from the appointed date or such extended time as the State Government may, by general or special order, specify, intimates his intention of not becoming or continuing as an employee of [the Authority]. Where such notice is received from any employee-
(a) in case of a permanent employee, he shall be allowed to retire giving him the benefit of pension, gratuity, provident fund and other benefits accrued to him had he retired from the Government service on the appointed date;
(b) in case of a temporary employee, his services shall stand terminated after giving him notice or remuneration in lieu of notice as per the existing service rules of the State Government.
(7) Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing sub-sections-
(a) no person employed in the Maharashtra Environmental Engineering Service against whom any disciplinary proceeding is pending or to whom any notice or order of termination of his services or compulsory retirement has been issued before the date of commencement of this Act shall be transferred to [the Authority], and such person may be dealt with after the said date in such manner and by such authority as the State Government may by general or special order specify in this behalf;
(b) if the services of any employee of the State Government stand transferred under sub-section (1) to [the Authority] shall be competent after such transfer to take such disciplinary or other action as it thinks fit against or in respect of such employee having regard to any act or omission or conduct or record of such employee which he was in service of the State Government.