G PANDARI BABU Vs. CHAIRMAN COIR BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these writ petitions involve similar question of fact and law. Hence, they are disposed of through common order.

(2.) Coir Board, Kochi, (the respondent herein), which is Government of India Undertaking, had established a Regional Coir Training and Development Centre, at Rajahmundry, in Andhra Pradesh (hereinafter referred to as 'the Centre'), in the year 1984. The petitioners in this batch of writ petitions came to be appointed in the Centre, at different points of time between 1984 and 1990, in different capacities. They were sought to be discontinued on the ground that the Centre was expected to function only for a limited period and thereafter was to have been taken over by the State Government. The petitioners had to approach this Court seeking redressal. As a result of the orders passed by this Court, the services of the petitioners were regularised.

(3.) The respondent issued individual orders to the petitioners regularising their services. However, through orders dated 25-1-2002, it had cancelled and withdrawn the orders of regularisation on the ground that the posts were not sanctioned and not borne out on its regular establishment. On 28-1-2002, the respondent issued orders of termination on the ground that the activities at the Centre have been discontinued. These orders are challenged in this batch of writ petitions, mainly on the ground that they constitute retrenchment in violation of Section 25F of the Industrial Disputes Act (for short 'the Act')