JUDGMENT :

D.P. CHOUDHURY, J.

1. Challenge has been made to the inaction of the opposite parties for non-payment of the Voluntarily Retirement Scheme (in short ‘VRS’) amount in accordance with Department of Public Enterprises Guidelines (hereinafter called as ‘the guidelines’).

2. Since the above writ petitions have got common question of law, they are being taken up together for disposal by this common judgment.

FACTS

3. The factual matrix leading to the writ petitions is that the petitioners are the employees of Hotel Nilachal Ashok, Puri having been appointed in between 1989 to 1991. The Indian Tourism Development Corporation is primarily a Central Government Public Undertaking (hereafter called as “the ITDC”) and it entered into a joint venture agreement with the State Government of Odisha to establish the hotel Nilachal Ashok under the joint venture company Utkal Ashok Hotel Corporation Limited in 1986. According to the petitioners, they were paid their salary whenever there is revision of scale of pay of the State Government employees. The employees of Hotel Nilachal Ashok were being paid the salary as per the rules and regulations of the State Government being a Public Sector Und