M P SINGH Vs. VIDESH SANCHAR NIGAM LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE writ petitions by former employees of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (,,VSNL), which is Respondent No. 1 in some of the writ petitions, raise an interesting question of law as to the maintainability of the very petitions. The plea of VSNL, which is now renamed as ,,Tata Communications Ltd. (,,TCL), is that after disinvestment the shareholding of the central government in VSNL came down to 26.12%, and since it no longer performs a public function or discharges a public duty a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is not maintainable against it.

(2.) THIS Court has heard the submissions of Mr. T.N. Razdan and Dr. K.S. Chauhan, learned counsel for the Petitioners, Mr. Chetan Sharma, learned Senior counsel for the TCL and Mr. Ravinder Agarwal, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Union of India.

(3.) THE Petitioners contend that at the time of their appointments they were in the Overseas Communications Service (,,OCS), a department of the Government of India (,,GoI) and thereafter absorbed in the VSNL in terms of the Office Memorandum (,,OM) dated 11th December 1989. According to them, para 4 of the said OM which deals with dismissal/removal from service implies that the same terms and conditions as were applicable to central government servants would apply to the Petitioners as well. A reference is made to an understanding between VSNL and the GoI as expressed in the letter dated 16th March 2001 during negotiations for disinvestment to the effect that the service conditions of the employees must be formulated in consultation with the employees unions and all service conditions including Conduct, Discipline and Appeal Rules, 1992 should be continued. Reference is also made to a clause in the shareholders agreement which requires the strategic partner to use its best efforts "to cause the Company to continue to provide adequate job opportunities" for the benefit of the members of SC/ST, physically handicapped persons and other socially disadvantaged categories of the society. It is contended that inasmuch as the GoI continues to hold 26.92% of the share capital, VSNL continues to perform a public function.