The power to regulate conditions of service under the Act is legislative in nature, allowing unilateral modification without employee consent or fair hearing.

1 The judgment rendered in Original Petition No. 5420 of 1985 is challenged in Writ Appeal No. 487 of 1985 by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation), its District Transport Officer and the Inspector-in-charge of the Corporation at Chittoor. The other two appeals arise out of O. P. No. 4785 of 1985 and 4926 of 1985 which decisions have been rendered by the learned Single Judge following the judgment in O. P. No. 5430 of 1985. All these three appeals raise common questions of fact and law and therefore they are being disposed of by this common judgment. For the sake of convenience we will advert to the facts with reference to O. P. No. 5420 of 1985 which has given rise to writ appeal No. 488 of 1985.

2 Respondent No. 1 M. Kalyanakrishnan was the petitioner in the original petition and respondent No. 2 is the State of Kerala which was one of the respondents in the original petition. Respondent No. 1 was an employee of a stage carriage operator, the route on which the stage carriage on which he was an employee stood nationalised in the year 1975 under the provisions of Chap.4A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The first respondent and the contesting respondents in the other two cases and others similarly situate were absorbed in the service of the Corporation. Though they had no legal right to be absorbed in service they were absorbed on sympathetic considerations as the employees of stage carriage operators who were operating in the nationalised routes lost their jobs consequent upon nationalisation. It is not disputed that the Corporation had adopted the Kerala Service Rules (hereinafter referred to as KSR) for regulating the conditions of service of these employees. It is also not disputed that the age of superannuation of the Class IV employees of the Corporation which was originally 60 years came to be reduced to 55 years with effect from 31-3-1971. As on the date on which the service of the contesting respondents stood absorbed in the Corporation the condition of service regarding age of superannuation prescribed 55 years as the age of superannuation. R.64 of Part III of the KSR makes it clear that in order to become eligible for pension one has to put in atleast 10 years of service. As many of the persons absorbed in service like the contesting respondents would have less than 10 years of service on their superannuation the Government by way of indulgence felt that some provisions should be made by which such persons become eligible for pension. It is for that reason that the State Government issued a direction to the Corporation in exercise of the powers conferred on it by S.34 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The said direction is contained in Ext. P1 dated 26-12-1981 the relevant petition of which may be extracted as follows.
"The class IV employees absorbed from Private Bus industry consequent on Nationalisation of Private Bus routes in 1975, have represented that they may be allowed to continue in service till they attain the age of 60 years or complete 10 years of service to make them eligible for the minimum pension. Government have examined the matter in detail in all its aspects and are pleased to order that Class IV Employees who were absorbed in Kerala State Road Transport Corporation from the private Bus industry consequent on the nationalisation of bus routes in 1975 who are unable to complete 10 years of service by the time they attain the age of 55 years will be retained in service till they complete 10 years of service or till they attain the age of 60 years whichever is earlier.
The General Manager, Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is direct to take necessary action to implement the above decision."
Sub-Section (2) of S.34 of the Act makes it obligatory for the Corporation to comply with the directions issued by the Government under S.34 in regard to regulation of conditions of service of the employees of th