JUDGMENT

CHANDRACHUD, CJI.:— This is a group of nine Writ Petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution raising the questions as to whether the petitioners are employees of the Central Government; if so, whether their conditions of service are governed by rules which apply to temporary employees of the Central Government; and lastly, whether the orders of retrenchment proposed or passed against them are violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

2. There are in all 542 petitioners in Writ Petitions Nos. 3598, 4369, 4423, 4376 and 4391 of 1978. This group consists of Engineers, Overseers, Teachers. Sub-divisional Clerks. Clerks, Accounts Clerks; Time-keepers, Research Assistants, Store-keepers, Meter Readers. Draughtsmen, Tracers and Steno-typists. In these five Writ Petitions order of retrenchment were proposed to be passed against the petitioners but those orders have been stayed by this Court during the pendency of the Writ Petitions. In Writ Petition No. 565 of 1979, there are 158 petitioners amongst whom are Shift Engineers, Line Superintendents and Sectional Officers. The 375 petitioners in the remaining three Writ Petitions Nos. 4505, 4536 and 4658 of 1978, are work-charged employees. The petitioners in these three Writ Petitons have already been retrenched. They are industrial employees and there is an Award of 1974 by which their rights have been adjudicated upon.

3. We will deal with the petitions of work-charged employees separately. Their cases stand on an altogether different footing from those of other employees. Our reference to the petitioners immediately hereinafter will mean petitioners other than work-charged employees.

4. Before examining the petitioners contentions, it is necessary to have a broad acquintance with the initiation and implementation of the Bhakra-Nangal and Beas Construction Projects, the provisions of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 31 of 1966, and the circumstances in which a conflict has arisen between the competing rights of petitioners on one hand, who were recruited directly and the Deputationists on the other, who belong to service cadres of certain State Government and whose services have been lent for the purposes of the aforesaid Projects.

5. The construction of the Beas Project was commenced in the year 1960 as a joint venture of the erstwhile State of Punjab and the State of Rajasthan by mutual agreement between the two States. All decisions on policy and administrative matters were taken by a Board known as the Beas Control Board, which was constituted by the Central Government in consultation with the two States on February 10, 1961. The Beas Control Board was presided over by the Governor of the then Punjab and its members included Ministers of the States of Punjab and Rajasthan, and senior officers of the Central Government and of the two States. The decisions of the Beas Control Board used to be implemented by the Punjab Government which was administering and executing the works on the project. Expenditure for the Project was shared by the Punjab and Rajasthan Governments.

6. With the passing of the Punjab Reorganisation Act which came into force on November 1, 1966, the new State of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh came into being, having been formed out of the territory of the erstwhile State of Punjab. A part of the Punjab territory was also transferred that was then the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh. What remained with Punjab became the new State of Punjab.

7. The Punjab Reorganisation Act contains a separate Chapter, Part VIII. on "Bhakra-Nangal and Beas projects". With effect from November 1, 1966, the Bhakra-Nangal Project and the Beas Project became the concern of the State of Rajasthan and of the successor States of the erstwhile State of Punjab, namely, the new States of the Punjab and Haryana and the then Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh.

8. By Section 79 (1) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, the Bhakra Management Board was constituted by th