Per M. R. Hariharan Nair, J.

The petitioners 1 to 3 and 5 to 23 were the employees of the Tata Oil Mills. With the merger of the Company with the Hindustan Lever on 19.3.1993, the petitioners became the employees of the 1st respondent. The petitioners were tempted to adopt the Voluntary Retirement Scheme introduced by the respondent and they left the service of the respondents. Thereafter, they came to understand that there was a change of terms in the Voluntary Retirement Scheme of the Company under which 15% more than what the petitioners got was admissible. The dispute based on the claim of the petitioners for the enhanced benefit reached the Labour Court, but, as per the impugned order marked as Ext. P1 in this case, the Labour Court found that the petitioners, having adopted the Voluntary Retirement Scheme which tantamounts to resignation are not entitled to claim the status of 'workmen' for the purpose of S. 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act. Consequently, the claim was found to be not maintainable and dismissed.

Mr. A. X. Varghese, the learned counsel for the petitioners, relied on the decision in Nar Singh Pal v. Union of India, (AIR 2000 SC 1401) where the empl