AMAR KUMAR BARIK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) W.P. 15173 (W) of 2010, an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India at the instance of certain employees of a public sector enterprise, i.e., the National Instruments Limited, Kolkata (hereafter the NIL), was disposed of by a learned Judge of this Court by a judgment and order dated October 14, 2015. An order dated April 9, 2010 passed by the Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, Department of Heavy Industry (the respondent no.3 in such writ petition), declining to grant benefits of a revised scale of pay to the writ petitioners was set aside by the learned Judge on the ground that the said respondent no.3 sought to reopen issues decided between the parties in a previous round of writ litigation [W.P. 985 (W) of 2007] and that he had passed an order thereafter, in derogation of the directives contained in the judgment dated October 30, 2009 disposing of such writ petition. The respondent no.3 was, therefore, directed to consider the writ petitioners' claim afresh, strictly in the light of the observations made in the judgment dated October 30, 2009, upon granting opportunity of hearing to them. He was required to pass a reasoned order within 12 weeks from the date of communication of the order.

(2.) The writ petitioners, aggrieved by the direction for fresh consideration of their claims by the self-same authority, i.e., the respondent no.3, have carried the judgment and order dated October 14, 2005 in an intra-court appeal (F.M.A. 999 of 2016); on the other hand, the respondents 1, 2 and 3 in W.P. 15173(W) of 2010 have challenged the judgment and order dated October 14, 2015 in its entirety in a separate intra-court appeal (M.A.T. 780 of 2016).

(3.) Since the two appeals arise out of a common judgment and order, we have heard the same together. We propose to dispose of such appeals by this common judgment and order.