( 1 ) BY this common judgment, this court proposes to dispose of both, the writ petition and the contempt petition. For the sake of convenience, facts of WP (C) No. 5023/1999 are taken note of.

( 2 ) THE petitioner has filed the present petition, praying inter alia, amongst others, for issuance of writ of certiorari, for quashing the letters dated 16th April, 1999 and 29th June, 1999, issued by respondents, indian Road Construction Corporation Ltd (hereinafter referred to as 'the i. R. C. C. ') calling upon the petitioner to pay a sum of Rs. 75,829. 80 paise purportedly released as excess advance to the petitioner on account of foreign tour settlement claim towards Travel allowance/dearness allowance, and for quashing a resolution passed by the Board of Directors of I. R. C. C. L. in their meeting held on 28th June, 1999, making the instructions issued by Department of public Enterprises (for short `dpe') dated 20th September, 1995 enforceable from the date of issue of the Office Memorandum dated 11th October, 1995 by the ministry of Surface Transport, Government of India (hereinafter referred to as `the MOST' ).

( 3 ) THE undisputed facts of the case are that the petitioner was employed as Manager (Mechanical) with the I. R. C. C. , a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956. The I. R. C. C. , who was in the business of carrying out construction activities, was working in the year 1978-79 on a project in Libya, which was finally handed over to its client in October 1993. In the meeting of the Board of Directors of the I. R. C. C. held on 4th August, 1977, the RBI rules/guidelines for payment of daily allowance to its employees who were travelling abroad were adopted. The aforesaid guidelines were revised by the RBI on 6th August, 1994 fixing the daily allowance of all the employees in PSUs who were travelling abroad.

( 4 ) IN the year 1996, a Committee of three officers, namely, general Manager (Civil), Senior Manager (Equipment) and the petitioner were deputed by the I. R. C. C. for an official visit to Libya. The tour of the petitioner to Libya was duly approved by the Board of Directors in its meeting held on 17th July, 1996 wherein it was resolved that the petitioner being a junior ranking executive, would be paid travel allowance @ US $ 175. Thereafter, the petitioner was sanctioned US $ 3102 plus Rs. 1,915 totalling to rs. 1,12,137/- in Indian currency to meet the expenditure on various heads, including transit visa, ship fare and daily allowance for expenses towards the stay of the petitioner, food, transportation etc. On his return from the tour, the petitioner submitted his daily allowance claim on 30th April, 1997, for adjustment of advance given to him as per the rules of the I. R. C. C.

( 5 ) AFTER a gap of one and a half years, the respondent No. 2 issued a letter dated 13th October, 1998 to the petitioner raising a recovery of US $ 237. 23, equivalent to Rs. 10,082. 30 paise against the petitioner in respect of his travel allowance/daily allowance for the aforesaid foreign tour undertaken in the year 1996. Upon receipt of the aforesaid intimation, the petitioner submitted his reply dated 30th August, 1998 pointing out certain calculation errors, on the basis of which the I. R. C. C. issued a letter dated 11th December, 1998 accepting the calculation errors and reducing the amount of recovery from the petitioner to US $ 137. 23, equivalent to Rs. 9,838/- in Indian currency, which was finally deducted from the salary of the petitioner.

( 6 ) IT was contended by the counsel for the petitioner that after the aforesaid deduction was made from his salary, as far as the petitioner was concerned, the matter stood closed. However, to his utter shock and disbelief, the respondent No. 2 issued yet another letter dated 16th April, 1999 to the petitioner followed by letter dated 29th June, 1999, informing him that an excess advance of Rs. 79,835. 80 paise was recoverable from him in respect of