JUDGMENT :

J.J. MUNIR, J.

1. Heard Mr. Braj Mohan Singh, learned Counsel for the petitioner, Ms. Monika Arya, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel on behalf of respondent Nos.1 and 2, Mr. Devesh Vikram, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of respondent Nos.3 and 5 and Mr. Adarsh Bhushan, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of respondent No. 6.

2. This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution has been filed by the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Contract Employees Sangh, Lucknow through its General Secretary.

3. It is the petitioner’s case that the petitioner is a registered union of contract employees, all of whom are employed with the Electricity Department in the District of Kushi Nagar, besides the entire State of Uttar Pradesh. The Managing Committee of the petitioner by a resolution dated 28.05.2023 have authorized the General Secretary of the Union, Devendra Kumar Pandey, to file this writ petition on behalf of the aggrieved members of the union. It must be remarked at the outset that what evidently the petitioner means by saying that its members are contract employees of the Electricity Department at Kushi Nagar and all across the State, is that they are employees of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (for short ‘the UPPCL’) and the various Regional Power Distribution Corporations functioning under the control of the UPPCL. This Court is compelled to understand it this way, because there is indeed no Electricity Department of the Government in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

4. A perusal of the averments in Paragraph No. 4 of the writ petition shows that the petitioner espouses the cause of about 167 of its members, who are contract employees, serving the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited at Kushi Nagar. A list of these contract employees, numbering 167, to be precise 170, there being a discrepancy in the figure between the averment in Paragraph No. 4 and the actual account in the list appended, is annexed as Annexure No. 2 to the writ petition. The members of the petitioner association (for short, ‘the workmen’) say that they are contract employees, doing skilled and unskilled work for the last about 10 years. They have been discharging their duties under the supervision and control of a certain M/s. SMM Infratech Pvt. Ltd., represented by its Managing Director at various KV Sub-stations within Vidyut Vitran Khand, Hata and Kasya, District Kushi Nagar. M/s. SMM Infratech Pvt. Ltd has not been characterized or described much in its relationship to the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (for short ‘the Corporation’), but the said party appears to be a work force supplier for the Corporation.

5. Admittedly, the workmen participated in a strike by powermen serving under the UPPCL and the Corporation as well for 2-3 days between 16th March to 19th March, 2023. The fact is admitted in Paragraph No. 8 of the writ petition and also in a letter dated 26.04.2023, addressed by the workmen working at Hata and Kasya, District Kushi Nagar to the Collector, Kushi Nagar. Along with the writ petition, a copy of the letter dated 1st May, 2023 by the Executive Engineer, Electricity Distribution Division, Hata, Kushi Nagar, addressed to the Collector, Kushi Nagar and the Sub-Divisional Officer, Tehsil Hata/ Kaptanganj, Kushi Nagar, has been appended as Annexure No. 5 to the writ petition. There is an averment in Paragraph No. 9 of the writ petition that the letter by the Executive Engineer acknowledges the expertise of the workmen in their trade, but says that they were on strike for 2-3 days. A perusal of the letter shows that the Executive Engineer has said that the workmen participated in the strike on account of being misguided, leading to termination of their services by M/s. SMM Infratech Pvt. Ltd.

6. The learned Counsel for the petitioner has argued that the workmen are contractual employees and their services cannot be dispensed with in order to replace them by other contract employees. He has relied upon th