ORDER

1. Leave granted.

2. By consent of learned counsel for the parties we have heard these appeals finally.

3. These appeals are preferred by the appellant-Union of India & others being aggrieved by the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench, Madras dated 4-2-1997 passed in Miscellaneous Applications Nos. 65 and 66 of 1997 arising out of Contempt Application No. 8 of 1996 in OA No. 305 of 1988. The original order of the Tribunal was in favour of 172 workers working in different cooperative stores run under the auspices of the Southern Railway by different cooperative societies spread over three States, namely, States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Earlier, these employees through their Union raised a dispute against the Railway authorities in OA No. 305 of 1988 which came to be decided by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench on 29-6-1990. The order passed by the Tribunal in connection with these 172 workers read as under :

"In the result, the respondents are directed to treat the employees of the Railway Employees Cooperative Stores of the Southern Railway as regular Railway servants and give them the pay scales that are given for regular Ra