ORDER

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals challenge the judgment and order dated 28.03.2017 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras in Writ Petition Nos. 43373 to 43378, 37233 to 37236, 37238 and 37240 of 2016.

3. The basic facts leading to the filing of the aforesaid writ petitions were culled out by the High Court in paragraphs 4 to 6 of its judgment presently under appeal, as under:

"4. The applicants are working as Officers in Tata Communication, which is a private sector undertaking. The applicants originally joined in the Department of Telecommunication and later, absorbed in VSNL. The VSNL was taken over by the Tata Communication with effect from 13.02.2002. The service rendered by the applicants in VSNL were pensionable. However, before they could complete the minimum required number of years of service to enable them to get pensionary benefits, their services came to be absorbed in the private sector, thereby denying them the minimum pension payable to them, otherwise.

5. In the above said circumstances, the applicants approached the Tribunal for relief of pensionary benefits by shifting their date of absorption in the VSNL to enable them to complete ten years of s