JUDGMENT

Mrs. SUJATA V. MANOHAR, J.: —Delay condoned.

2. Leave granted in all these special leave petitions.

3. Applications for intervention are allowed as the applicants are in a position similar to that of the respondents in these appeals. Some of the applications for intervention were made after the hearing of these appeals was over and the judgment was reserved. Normally, we would not have allowed such applications. But in view of the fact that the applicants in these applications are also similarly situated and would, in any case, be governed by the ratio of the judgment, we have allowed these applications also as a special-case.

4. A Census is conducted in the country every 10 years under the Census Act of 1948, under the directions of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. For the purpose of conducting the census, Directorates of Census Operations have been established in each State and Union Territory of India. The Directorates of Census Operations work under the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.

5. For carrying on the normal functions of the Directorate of Census Operations in the State of U.P. certain permanent posts have been sanctioned. At the time, however, of each decennial census, which is an exercise carried out on a gigantic scale every 10 years, a large number of extra temporary posts are required to be created for a short period. Some of these posts are in connection with the manual tabulation and processing of data collected during the field operations. The extra work being limited in duration, such posts are created for a fixed period and carry a fixed pay. Once the period specified is over, these posts are abolished and the temporary staff appointed against these temporary posts is disengaged. The appointments to such temporary posts are only made for a fixed period and on the clear basis that these appointments are purely short term. The incumbents would not be entitled to any regular appointment on the basis of such a fixed term appointment.

6. For the purposes of the census conducted in the year 1981, approximately 932 temporary Class C & D posts were created in the Directorate of Census Operations, U.P. Temporary appointments were made to such Class C and D posts. These posts included the posts of Compilers, Coders, Checkers and Supervisors. These posts were continued upto 30-6-1984 when all these appointments were terminated as the work connected with the 1981 census was over.

7. Some of the persons whose services were thus terminated filed a writ petition, being Writ Petition No.3235 of 1984 before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court challenging their termination and for other reliefs. The Allahabad High Court in its judgment and order dated 16.7.1984 noted the stand taken by the Union of India that the employment of these employees working in the Census Department was time-bound and came to an end on 30.6.1984. It is also noted that the posts to which these employees were appointed had also stood abolished and there was no budgetary sanction for these posts beyond 30.6.1984. The High Court, therefore, held that the petitioners before it could not be granted the relief prayed for. However, in order to safeguard the interest of the retrenched employees, it ordered the respondents to make any fresh recruitment in the Census Department or for its allied work only from amongst the retrenched employees. This order was made in connection with the 900 and odd employees whose services had been dispensed with on 30.6.1984. A special leave petition against this order was dismissed.

8. Thereafter just before the 1991 census, an Association of these retrenched employees filed a Writ Petition No.3748 of 1990 before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in which the High Court gave an interim order dated 18.12.1990 in which it gave a direction to the State Government to appoint these retrenched employees in the Census Department if they were found eligible and fit fo