Judgment

Dipak Misra, J.

Leave granted in S.L.P.(C) NO.1833 of 2013 an S.L.P. (C) NO.19001 of 2013.

2. The U.P. State Cement Corporation Limited (for short, 'the Corporation') was wound up on 8th December, 1999. There is no dispute about the fact that the said Corporation is an instrumentality of the State under Article 12 of the Constitution of India. It is the admitted position that in the State of U.P. existed a set of rules, namely, the Uttar Pradesh Absorption of Retrenched Employees of Government or Public Corporations in Government Service Rules, 1991 (for short, 'the 1991 Rules'). After the Corporation was wound up, Shailendra Kumar Pandey and some others, who were the employees of the Corporation, filed Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No.36644 of 2003, seeking absorption under the aforesaid Rules.

3. The learned Single Judge hearing the writ petition referred to Rule 3(i) of the Rules that deals with the rights of the retrenched employees. He referred to the dictionary clause engrafted in Rule 2(c), which reads as follows:

“2(c) Retrenched employees means a person who was appointed on the post under the Government or a public corporation on or before Oct., 1, 1986 in accordan