J.B.Koshy, J.

1. In all these writ petitions, the challenge is directed against the award in Reference Case No. 5 of 1993 and 77 of 1994 on the file of the Labour Court, Patna. The issues referred for adjudication in both the cases are whether the termination of the workers named therein by the Bihar State Scheduled Caste Corporation Ltd. (the Corporation, for brevity), a Corporation registered under the Bihar Co-operative Societies Act, 1935 (the Act, in short) is valid or not and whether they should be reinstated in service and given compensation. The references were made under Section 10(1)(c) of the Industrial Disputes Act (for short, the ID Act).

2. The workers were appointed by the Executive Officer/Administrator on a temporary basis. Their services were terminated after the continuous service of one year and in that year, they had worked for more than 240 days. All the workers involved in the dispute were appointed in 1990-91 purely on temporary basis. Their services were not confirmed despite their request since, according to the respondent, they were employed in violation of the circular (No. 526 dated 9th February, 1989) issued by the Department of Cooperative, G