( 1 ) BY this appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent, the appellant ("ongc" for short) has challenged the judgement dated 15/16. 2. 1999 of the learned Single Judge of this Court, whereby, after an elaborate discussion, reliefs as under were granted to the workmen concerned represented by the respondent trade union herein:"15. The upshot of the aforesaid adjudication is that this Court finds that the impugned award dated 6th June, 1994 passed by the Industrial Tribunal (Central) at Vadodara, is required to be modified and the same is hereby modified as under: (1) The relief will not be restricted only to those workmen whose names appear in the Schedule to the affidavit at Exh. 48 which was filed by the ONGC before the Industrial Tribunal in the Complaint (ITC) 5 of 1993, but it will be available to all the employees who fulfil the requirements of completion of 240 days or more and the minimum qualifications under the ONGC (Recruitment and Promotion) Regulations, 1980 in accordance with the relevant Certified Standing Orders and in case they fulfil these requirements, all of them shall be considered at par with regular employees for the benefits which are given to regular employees, whether their names are there in the Schedule or not, whether they are members of the petitioner Sangh or not from the due date. (2) All such employees who are found to be covered by the preceding para of the relief as modified by this Court, shall be treated at par with the other regular employees working against the corresponding or equivalent/equated or identical posts and grant of such benefits shall not wait for the availability of the vacancies on the regular posts, of course, they will have to wait according to their turn for being made permanent as and when the permanent posts become available for this purpose, the age requirement shall be seen with reference to the point of time when such employees were initially employed instead of the relaxation as has been directed by the Industrial Tribunal in the impugned award. (3) Whereas the status of regular appointee is to be given to the employees who are covered by the Standing Order No. 2 (ii) as above on the basis of conversion, the requirement to compete with other workmen seeking employment through Employment Exchange or similar manner as has been mentioned by the Industrial Tribunal in the impugned award, simply does not arise. 16. This Special Civil Application accordingly succeeds in part and the impugned award dated 6th June, 1994 passed by the Industrial Tribunal (Central), at Vadodara, in Reference (ITC) No. 6 of 1991 is modified in the terms as aforesaid and these modified terms would govern the rights and obligations of the parties. The respondent ONGC would take appropriate steps in accordance with the modified terms as aforesaid and issue appropriate orders for all the employees who are covered by these terms at the earliest possible opportunity, but in no case, later than 30th April 1999. " 1. 1 according to the order dated 16. 12. 2004 in this appeal, the respondent Union (original petitioner) has given up its claim for modification of the award in terms of direction No. 1 in paragraph 15 quoted hereinabove, but pressed for implementation of directions No. 2 and 3 (in respect of 156 employees who were covered by protective interim order of this Court ). On the other hand, the learned Solicitor General stated that the ONGC, appellant herein, did not press its challenge to direction No. 3. In that view, the controversy and the appeal is now restricted to challenging direction No. 2 only.

( 2 ) TRACING the journey of this litigation spreading over 25 years, it appears that the appellant, a giant Corporation which started with the staff strength of 450 employees in 1956, had, by the year 1979, 25000 employees. In the year 1991, the respondent Trade Union agitated the demands of their members who were recruited as "casual/contingent/temporary" workmen seeking re