Manojit Bhuyan, J.

A bunch of writ petitions were answered by a learned Single Judge vide common judgment and order dated 03.10.2016. The present appeal pertains to the determination made in one such writ petition i.e. WP (C) 1399/2013.

2. We have heard Mr. K.K. Mahanta, learned senior counsel for the appellants, assisted by Mr. K. Singha and Ms. P. Thapa, Advocates as well as Dr. B. Ahmed, learned counsel for the respondents.

3. The facts of this case have been exhaustively dealt with in the related writ petition. However, for the determination of this appeal, the relevant facts are traversed once again. The appellants were employees of a Government company called the Assam State Minor Irrigation Development Corporation Limited (in short, ASMIDC). The financial health of ASMIDC having received severe setback, the Government of Assam examined winding up of ASMIDC. In this regard, a proposal was initially made for creation of a separate ground water wing in the Irrigation Department for absorbing the officers and staff of ASMIDC. In all, there were 564 numbers of employees in ASMIDC. At the initiative of the Irrigation Department, endeavour was made to absorb all the em