$ Union of India & Ors. .....Respondents ^ Through: Mr. R.V. Sinha for respondent No. 1. Mr. Rajiv Nayar and Mr. Chetan Sharma, Sr. Advocates with Mr. Rishi Aggarwal and Ms. Shikha Saran for respondents No. 2 & 3. Hon'ble MR. JUSTICE S.N. AGGARWAL 1. Whether reporters of Local paper may be allowed to see the judgment? YES 2. To be referred to the reporter or not?YES 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?YES S.N.AGGARWAL, J (ORAL) The petitioner is a federation of employees who were originally employees of Government of India, working in the Overseas Communication Services (OCS) under the Ministry of Telecommunications, Government of India. On 01.04.1986, when OCS was converted into VSNL as a 100% owned Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), the members of the petitioner federation were transferred to VSNL on deputation and later on were absorbed as employees of VSNL. The disinvestment of VSNL took place and it was privatized w.e.f. 13.02.2002. The management and control of VSNL was taken over by M/s Panatone Finvest Limited (Respondent no. 3 herein), a company owned by Tata W.P.(C) No.8934/2008 Page 1 of 16 Group of Companies. As a consequence of privatization of VSNL w.e.f. 13.02.2002, the Government of India ceased to have control and management over the affairs of respondent No. 2. However, the Government of India, even after privatization, continued to hold 26% shareholding in VSNL. In 2007, the name of VSNL was changed to M/s. Tata Communications Ltd. (Respondent no. 2 herein). Preprivatization, employees of the petitioner federation were the employees of respondent No. 2, control of which vested with respondent No. 3. 2 The petitioner has filed this writ petition seeking to enforce the Office Memorandum dated 18.07.1989 issued by the Government of India and the Office Memorandum dated 11.12.1989 issued by the VSNL with regard to the service conditions insofar as it relates to dismissal/removal of employees (members of the petitioner federation) from respondent No. 2 organization. The prayer made by the petitioner in this writ petition is extracted below: "In the premises aforesaid, it is most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to: (a) issue appropriate writs, orders or directions in the nature of Mandamus directing the Respondents, their servants and agents to follow the procedure set forth in OCS Office Memorandum No. HQ/0101/89PE.1 dated 11.12.1989 and Office Memorandum No. 1/61/89 P & PW (C) dated 18.071989; (b) direct the Respondent No. 2 not to terminate the services of any members of the Petitioner federation without adhering to the procedure set forth in Office memorandum dated 11.12.1989 and Office Memorandum No. 1/61/89P & PW (C) dated 18.07.1989." 3 The grievance of the petitioner in this writ petition is that they apprehend termination of the service of their members by respondents No. 2 & 3 without adhering to the procedure set forth in OM dated 11.12.1989/18.07.1989 referred above. When this writ petition came up for admission hearing, this Court vide its order dated 17.12.2008 directed W.P.(C) No.8934/2008 Page 2 of 16 the petitioner to file list of its members within three days and also directed respondents No. 2 & 3 to maintain statusquo in relation to employment of the members of the petitioner federation till the next date of hearing. 4 On receipt of notice of this writ petition, the respondent No. 2 filed an application being CM No. 120/2009 for vacation of the interim order dated 17.12.2008 and dismissal of the writ petition. The hearing on this application was adjourned from one date to another and in fact, the said application was heard partly on two occasions by Justice V.K. Shali on 03.03.2009 and again on 26.05.2009. However, the respondent No. 2 in the meanwhile approached the Hon'ble Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos. 13