1. This application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India has been filed on behalf of 22 persons. Their prayer is to quash Annexure 2, an order dated the 6th September, 1976 by which these petitioners have been retrenched with effect from 6.9.1976 under the orders of respondent no.2, A further prayer that the respondents be directed to forbear from giving effect to the order (Annexure 2) and to direct them not to terminate the services of the petitioners in pursuance there of and to treat the petitioners as in continuous service has also been made.

2. According to the case, as made out in the writ application, all these petitioners are in continuous service of the respondents for more than one year. It is said that all on a sudden the petitioners and 29 others were picked up for termination of their service by a notice dated 4.2.1976. The order was challenged by a writ application in this Court which was numbered as C.W.J.C. No. 674 of 1976. A prayer for stay of the operation of the order dated 4.2.976 by which the service or the petitioners were terminated was also made in that case. The Bench (to which I was a party) directed stay of the operation