HIMA KOHLI, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioners have preferred the present writ petitions praying inter alia for issuance of appropriate directions to the respondent to cancel and/or recall the voluntary retirement given to the petitioners pursuant to the Office Order dated 8th July, 2002, amended on 28th/29th March, 2003 as also the impugned order dated 15th/16th December, 2005 and reinstate them in service forthwith.

( 2 ) THE undisputed facts of the case are that the respondent circulated a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (for short 'vrs') vide Office Order dated 8th July, 2002. As per the said Office Order, options were invited from the employees for accepting VRS. The petitioners herein opted for the VRS under the aforesaid Scheme. The said Office Order is reproduced hereinbelow:

OFFICE ORDER

Options for accepting Voluntary Retirement Scheme are hereby invited from all employees of Centaur Hotel Delhi Airport including Chefair , Delhi , Chefair , mumbai including Dining Facilities Centre and also the employees of Head Office who had opted for Centaur Hotel Delhi and Chefair , mumbai, as the case may be. On acceptance of the Volun-tary Retirement by the Company, the Scheme would be operative only

in the eventuality of disinvestment on completion of the transaction of the respective business to which the employees belong. A copy of the Scheme is enclosed for perusal, information and sake of clarity. The employees are advised, if they are interested, that they may submit their applications in the prescribed format enclosed with the Scheme referred hereinabove latest by 7th August, 2002, which on receipt will be processed and details thereto would be provided to the prospective bidders with the list of employees whose Voluntary Retirement options have been accepted by the HCI and they would be accordingly asked to make upfront payment of the requisite amount. The upfront amount so received would be disbursed to the employees of the respective units on the date of transfer of business and simultaneously their claim for terminal benefits would also be processed and settled by the HCI itself.

All HODs are advised to kindly bring out the contents of the above Office Order to the knowledge of each employee and may arrange to have their application collected so as to reach the undersigned on or before 7th august, 2002.

(R. C. Aggarwal )

Managing Director.

( 3 ) AS the disinvestment referred to in the aforesaid Office Order was getting delayed, the respondent issued a Staff Notice dated 28th/29th march, 2003 whereby the earlier Office Order dated 8th July, 2002 was amended. The said Staff Notice is reproduced hereinbelow:

STAFF NOTICE

Voluntary retirement Scheme-Amended Vide our Office Order No. MD/hci/del/or-VRS/041 dated july 08, 2002, displayed on the Notice Board of the Company in each of the units, we had also displayed the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) as formulated by the Company. In response to this Notice/voluntary Retirement Scheme, number of applications were received from the employees.

Subsequently, management had displayed names of the employees whose applications for VRS was accepted and also individual letters of accepting the application for VRS were issued to the eligible employees. This Voluntary Retirement Scheme was subject to the concerned Unit being disinvested.

2. Since there has been some delay, in order to facilitate the employees who had applied for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, Management has decided to proceed with the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. Consequent to this decision of the management, following amendments are notified in the VRS Scheme announced earlier:

(a)In view of the modified VRS Scheme now offered under this Staff Notice, it will not be obligatory on the part of the purchaser (s) to offer any further VRS at the time of disinvestment.

(b)The employees whose applications for VRS is accepted, will be relied on the date (s) decided by the Managing Director, taking into account the exige