M MADHANRAJ Vs. MANAGING DIRECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners except in W.P.Nos.18992 of 2001 and 6491 of 2002 seek for Writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents to regularise the service of the petitioners in the post of Electronic Data Processing Operators from the date of their initial engagement as Electronic Data Operators, based on clause 11 of the settlement dated 28.09.1989 entered between the management of the respective respondent transport Corporations and the workmen of the trade unions under Section 12(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (in brevity "the I.D. Act")

(2.) The facts of the case of the petitioners in nutshell are as follows:- The petitioners were initially appointed as Conductors in the respective respondent transport Corporations. When Electronic Data Entry Operators-cum-processors Section was introduced, the respective respondent transport corporations conducted a test for the conductors, who were eligible and qualified for the said post and selected the qualified persons. They were appointed in the vacancies as Electronic Data Entry Operators-cum-Processors in E.D.P.Section, of course, on temporary basis, initially, and thereafter, by one of the proceedings dated 27.03.1997, Pallavan Transport Corporation and similar proceedings of the other Transport Corporations, posted the Conductors in EDP Section permanently. That apart, as in the case of Thiruvallur Transport Corporation vide their proceedings dated 03.05.1996, some of the respondent Transport Corporations redesignated the cadre of selected conductors, working in E.D.P Section as Data Entry Operators.

(3.) The core contentions made on behalf of the petitioners are that