Judgment

Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J.—Leave is granted in the Special Leave petitions.

2. In Food Corporation of India, Bombay & Ors. v. Transport & Dock Workers Union & Ors.1, a two-Judge Bench of this Court, having noticed the conflict of opinion between different Benches including two three-Judge Benches of this Court on the interpretation of the expression "appropriate Government’’ in Section 2(1)(a) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (for short, ‘the CLRA Act’) and in Section 2(a) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for short, ‘the I.D. Act’) and having regard to the importance of the question of automatic absorption of the contract labour in the establishment of the principal employer as a consequence of an abolition notification issued under Section 10(1) of the CLRA Act, referred these cases to a larger Bench. The other cases were tagged with the said case as the same questions arise in them also. That is how these cases have come up before us.

3. To comprehend the controversy in these cases, it will suffice to refer to the facts in Civil Appeal Nos. 6009-10/200l @ SLP Nos. 12657-12658 of 1998 which are preferred from the judgment and order of the C