- (1.) M. C. Agarwal, J. The six writ peti tions by the employees of the Gorakhpur Fertilizer Unit of the Fertilizer Corpora tion of India Limited (for short "fcil") relate to a common grievance and have raised identical pleas. The counsel from either side are also common and, there fore, all these six writ petitions have been heard together and will be disposed of by this common order.
(2.) WRIT Petition No. 23656 of 1998 in which counter and rejoinder affidavits, supplementary affidavits, supplementary rejoinder affidavits etc. have been ex changed will be the leading case from which we will state the requisite facts in this judgment. In other writ petitions also counter-affidavits have been filed and in writ petition Nos. 24069 and 27662 of 1998 rejoinder affidavits to have been filed. However, they are all more or less copies of what has been stated in connection with writ petition No. 23656 of 1998 and we may make a specific reference to them only if necessary. We have heard Sri Ravi Kiran Jain, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Sri K. K. Roy, Advocate, for the petitioners and Sri S. S. Bhatnagar, learned Senior Ad vocate assisted by Sri R. S. Mishra and Sri Awadhesh Rai, advocates for the respon dents 1 tp 4. That most people love receiving money without earning it is the moral of the case set up by the petitioners who have gone even a step further to seek the help of this Court in achieving the aforesaid pur poses.
(3.) AS stated above, all the petitioners are employees of the FCIL employed in the Corporations fertilizer factory at Gorakhpur in the State of Uttar Pradesh. AS a result of the recommendations of the Vth Central Pay Commission, the Govern ment of India enhanced the age of retire ment of its employees from 58 years to 60 years. The Government of India issued an office Memorandum (for short O. M.) dated 13th May, 1998 stating that the President has directed that every Govern ment servant whose age of retirement is currently 58 years shall now retire from service on the afternoon of the last date of the month in which he/she attains the age of 60 years. A copy of the said O. M. is Annexure T to the writ petition. The Memorandum further states that these or ders will come into force w. e. f. the date of notification of the amendment to the relevant rules and regulations etc. and will be applicable to Central Government employees except those who have already retired in accordance with the earlier rules and also those who are on extension in service. Simultaneously, by another notification of the same date the fun damental rules were amended with the result that the direction of the President to increase the age of retirement from 58 years to 60 years became effective from 13th May, 1998. Annexure '2' to the writ petition is a copy of the notification by which the service rules regarding age of retirement were amended. Then on 19th May, 1998 the Department of Public Enterprises in the Ministry of Industry, Government of India issued an O. M. stating that the Govern ment has decided to enhance the age of retirement for below Board level employees of Central Public Sector Enterprises from 58 years to 60 years. This O. M. also stated that this decision will come into force w. e. f. from the date the relevant rules and regulations of the Public Sector Enterprises (for short 'pse') concerned are amended by the con cerned PSE. As a result of the aforesaid O. M. the Board of Directors of the FCIL considered the matter and passed a resolu tion dated 6-7-1998 which has been reproduced in paragraph 3 of the counter-affidavit and reads as under:- "the Board noted that FCIL was referred to BIFR in April 1992 and declared sick in November, 1992. No revival package has been approved by BIFR so far. Gorakhpur Unit is closed since June 1990 carrying surplus of 1322 men as on 1-7-1998 and Kobra which was wound up is carrying surplus of 54 men. Besides, FCIL is carrying surplus in the Corporation all over for which a voluntary retirement scheme providing specific financial incentive to induce employees to seek early retirement is in opera tion since 1988 and so far 1524 persons have availed the benefit under the scheme as on 30-6-1998. FCIL is totally dependent on Government support for critical capital expenditure, working capital and to meet the huge operating losses by its units. Wages of the employees have not been revised as a result there has been a flight of taient. The only little incentive was promotion which will also be blocked in case age of retire ment is enhanced from 58 years to 60. Enhanc ing the age of retirement involves financial im plications which will further jeopardize the revival proposal of the Corporation before the BIFR. In view of the above the Board unani mously decided not to raise the age of retire ment from 58 to 60 years. ";