The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement of compliance with Section 25-N of the Industrial Disputes Act for the termination of employees in an industrial establishment, and the interpretation of the definition of 'industrial establishment' under Section 25-L.

( 1 ) BY means of this writ petition the petitioners have prayed for the issue of a writ or order in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to reinstate petitioners with continuity of service with back wages in pursuance of the judgments and order dated August 21, 2003 and September 24, 2003. Further prayer was made for the issue of a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to grant the same benefits to the petitioners, as other similarly situated employees who were party in Writ Petition No. 1376 of 2001, Writ Petition No. 511 (S/s) of 2003, 6747 (S/s) of 2001 and 1539 (S/s) of 2003, have been given under the judgment and order dated August 21, 2003 and September 24, 2003 passed by this Court.

( 2 ) BRIEF facts giving rise to the writ petition are that the petitioners No. 1 to 10, 13 and 14 were working as Scalar under the respondents since 1981-82 and petitioner Nos. 11 and 12 were working as Chaukidar. According to the petitioners, their services were wrongly terminated w. e. f. March 31, 1995, April 1, 1995 and May 31, 1995.

( 3 ) HEARD Ms. Suman Sirohi, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri. P. S. Danu, learned counsel for the respondents.

( 4 ) THE petitioners have stated that at the time of their termination all the petitioners were working at Kotdwar and Pauri Garhwal. According to the case of the petitioners 18 other employees of the respondents Nigam were also retrenched on the same day by respondent No. 2 who had also raised an industrial dispute and award was given in favour of the workmen and relief was granted by the Labour Court for reinstatement with continuity of service and 50% back wages. It has been further stated that the respondent had filed 19 writ petitions against the award dated August 10, 2001 and the writ petitions were dismissed on April 24, 2003 upholding the validity of the award. The petitioners have further stated that on december 26, 1997 the award was challenged in Writ Petition No. 1376 of 2001 and the award was set-aside on August 21, 2003 on the ground that the termination of the aforesaid 30 workmen were made in contravention of the mandatory provisions of Section 25-N of the industrial Disputes Act.

( 5 ) ACCORDING to the contention of the petitioners since more than 100 employees are working in the industrial establishment, as such, three months prior notice or pay in lieu thereof is mandatory, therefore, the orders of retrenchment are wholly illegal.

( 6 ) THE petitioner has submitted that Rules were enforced w. e. f. March 10, 1976 by which the provisions of Chapter V-B was made applicable in the State of U. P. Rule-4 is quoted as under: "rule-4 Notice of and application for permission for retrenchment: (1) Notice under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of Section 25-N for retrenchment shall be served in Form 'd' on such authority as may be specified by the State Government either personally or by registered post acknowledgment due and where the notice is served by registered post, the date on which the same was delivered to such authority shall be made deemed to be the date of service of the notice for the purpose of sub-section (3) of the said section. (2) Application for permission for retrenchment under sub- section (4) of section 25-N shall be made in Form 'e' with attested copy of the notice given by the employer under clause (a) of Section 25-F and delivered to such authority as may be specified by the State Government either personally or by registered post acknowledgment due and where application is sent by registered post the date on which the same was delivered to the State government or the authority shall be deemed to be the date on which the application was made for the purpose of sub- section (5) of the said section. (3) The notice or, as the case may be, the application shall be served in triplicate and sufficient number of copies of the application for service on the workmen concerned shall be submitted alongwith notice