Judgment-

RANGANATH MISRA, J

( 1 ) THE first of these applications under Article 32 of the Constitution is on behalf of the Delhi Reserve Trained Pool Telephone Operators (RTPTCs) asking for a direction to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited to treat all the telephone operators at par after their absorption as regular employees. Three letters addressed to the learned chief justice of this court have been treated as writ petitions and are the remaining ones under Article 32 of the Constitution. The first one (Writ Petition No. 1276 of 1986 is by the Reserve Trained Pool Telephone Operators of Bombay. They claim the self-same relief as asked for in the earlier case; the second one (Writ Petition No. 1623 of 1986 is on behalf of the Reserve Trained Pooloperators in the Department of Posts and they have claimed relief of being placed at par with regular, permanent or temporary employees in the matter of service conditions. The third one (Writ Petition No. 1624 of 1986 is on behalf of substitute employees and casual labourers in the Department of Posts. They have claimed that substitute employees and casual labourers be paid the same emoluments as regular employees.

( 2 ). In an earlier Writ Petition No. 11764 of 1985 filed by the All India Telegraph Engineering Employees Union Class III of Bombay Telephones where the prayer for treating the Reserve Trained Pool Telephone Operators at par with regular staff had also been asked for, this court made the following order on 1/05/1986:

"the matter is adjourned to 28/07/1986 to enable the newly added respondent 3 to file counter-affidavit on or before 15/07/1986. Rejoinder, if any, will be filed within one week thereafter. Meanwhile, the respondent will pay to the operators drawn from the Reserve Trained Pool of the Telephone Operators from Bombay and Delhi Telephones @ Rs. 4. 90 per hour provided that the total salary of the Telephone Operators from the Reserve Trained Pool shall not exceed the salary of regularly appointed Telephone Operators. "

ON 23/07/1986, this court in that writ petition further ordered:

"the order passed by the court on 1/05/1986 shall be final. The wages shall be paid in accordance with the terms contained in that order. We, however, make it clear that if the dearness allowance and other allowances are varied hereafter the workers concerned shall get DA and other allowances accordingly subject to the limit that the total emoluments would not exceed the salary of regularly appointed Telephone Operators. If the petitioners have any other grievance they are at liberty to agitate. This order will apply to all RTPA employees who are similarly situated. "

( 3 ). It is stand of the respondents that the order of this court has been implemented with effect from 28/07/1986. After that was done, the RTPTOs of Bombay and Delhi have in their respective writ petitions applied for further relief as already indicated. According to the petitioners in these two writ petitions, the RTPTOs are entitled to be brought on par with the regular staff for grant of other service benefits as they have been performing the same duties as performed by regular operators.

( 4 ). The two petitions have been opposed by the relevant Ministry by filing counter-affidavits where the stand taken is that RTPTOs are a special class by themselves with their own incidents of service and they cannot be treated at par with regular employees. The differences betweenthe two services have been highlighted in the counter-affidavits. It is also the stand of the respondents that the order of this Court referred to above dated 28/07/1986 finally disposed of the major claim raised in the two petitions of the employees of the two Telephone Nigams and fresh action was not appropriate. It is also pointed out that on 10/02/1986, there was an agreement of settlement and the present petition was an attempt to reopen the matter. On 31/01/1989, when Writ Petition No. 1276 of 1986 came up for hearing before this Court, the foll