JUDGMENT

The petitioners in these cases are stated to be the erstwhile employees of the Kerala State Coconut Development Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation for short). They say that the Corporation became defunct and that the employees were thereafter given an option, either to opt for retirement under a Voluntary Retirement Scheme or to be retrenched until the Corporation is able to be revived.

2. I am told that most of the employees of the Corporation chose the former option and retired from service under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, while 16 of them, some of them who are the petitioners herein, decided to opt for the retrenchment option, presumably under the fond expectation of being able to obtain employment once the Corporation is revived. However, it appears from the records that this fond hope of the petitioners never came to be and that, therefore, they became constrained to approach this Court on an earlier occasion, by filing W.P. (C) Nos.4082/2008 and 31564/2008, which were disposed of by a judgment dated 9.9.2009, in the following manner:

“Common issues are involved in these two writ petitions. Therefore, they have been heard together and are bein