( 1 ) THE petitioners (19) in number are all working as junior Laboratory Officers earlier designated as Technical Assistants, in the Machilipatnam unit of Bharat Electronics Limited, (for short the BEL ) a Public Sector Undertaking and an instrumentality of the State. A Brief History :

( 2 ) A company in the private sector by name "the Andhra Scientific Company limited" was established in 1926 in machilipatnam, Krishna District in the state of Andhra Pradesh, for the manufacture of laboratory and educational equipment. The company was engaged in the manufacture of optical instruments required for medical, survey and industrial applications. It also entered the defense field and manufactured optics based components for the defense requirements. The company had fallen sick and was closed during 1971-72. In 1972, the Ministry of Defence, in the public interest, took over the management of the Company and ran it for about a decade. The Andhra Scientific Company limited (Acquisition and Transfer of undertakings) Act 1983 was enacted by the Parliament whereby inter alia the assets and liabilities of the Company were taken over by the Union. By another order of the union