ORDER

M/s. Rohtas Industries Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Company) owns an industrial complex at Dalmianagar in the State of Bihar having units for manufacturing cement, paper, vanaspati, asbestos and vulcanised fibres. It was employing about 10,000 workers. The company started having troubles in 1982-83 and ultimately the industrial units were closed with effect from September 9, 1984. The workmen moved this Court by filing this writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. This is how this Court has been concerned with the affairs of this undertaking.

2. Proceedings for the winding up of the company have also been started and the same are pending before the Patna High Court wherein, a Provisional Liquidator has been .appointed. During the pendency of this petition, the provisions of Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 (herein after referred to as the Act) came into force which provide for the establishment of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (for short the Board) with power to enquire into and determine the incidence of sickness in industrial companies and devise suitable remedial measures through appropriate schemes or other proposals and for proper implementation thereof. On October 28, 1987, the Court passed an order whereby the Central Government was directed to make a reference to the Board for framing a scheme as contemplated under Section 18 of the Act for revival of the company. The Board submitted a report wherein it was indicated that three of the units of the company, viz., cement, asbestos and vanaspati could be revived as the same appear to be viable but the paper unit could not be revived. Keeping in view the said report of the Board as well as the statements filed on behalf of the State of Bihar and the Union of India and the memorandum prepared by the learned Attorney General and filed before this Court, the Court passed an order dated October 28, 1989 whereby the State of Bihar was directed to appoint an Authorised Officer from the senior IAS cadre with appropriate commercial background to be the Rehabilitation Administrator and the State Government agreed to deposit a sum of Rs. 15 crores to enable him to pay the arrears of wages to the workers and for disbursement of secured loans of financial institutions and the parties for which security of companys assets had been furnished. By the said order it was directed that the asbestos, cement and vanaspati units shall be commissioned after effecting such repairs as may be necessary and steps shall be taken to explore the viability of the paper unit within three months after the company is recommissioned in respect of three units. The considerations which weighed with the Court in passing this order were that a lot of assets of the company were fast becoming useless and will soon become junk and though several attempts were made to dispose of some of the stocks held by the Provisional Liquidator but for one reason or the other it had not been possible to complete the sale and if the company is not revived and gets liquidated the liabilities would turn out to be far in excess of the assets and notwithstanding first and second charges on the assets, the creditors may not appreciably benefit, The Court also took note of the fact that living to about 10,000 families has bee denied for over five years and apart from national loss, the workmen have been put to serious jeopardy and that it was of paramount importance that the company in respect of the viable units should be revived and allowed to come into production. In accordance with the said directions, the State of Bihar designate an officer who took over as the Rehabilitation Commissioner and paid a sum of Rs. 1 crores. The necessary repairs were carried out and three units, viz., cement, asbestos an vanaspati plants were able to start functioning which started providing employment to about 2,900 workers. But viability of the unit could not be achieved and los