Paritosh Kumar Mukherjee, J. - (1.) Three persons, who are all employees of Haldia Petro-Chemical Division of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as the said Corporation), moved the present joint writ petition for issue of necessary orders for their absorption in the said Corporation and obtained an order of "status quo", as on December 23, 1986 from U. C. Banerjee, J, which is continuing till this date.
(2.) The present writ petitioners tried to bring their case within the doctrine of promissory estoppel and their case is as follows: - The petitioners Nos. 1 and 2 Satyabrata Shome and Madhusudan Das were originally State Government employees, when they were deputed to the Haldia Petro Chemical Division of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited on "foreign service" by orders of the State Government dated April 14, 1979 and February 13, 1980. The writ petitioners respectively were sent "on deputation" for a limited period, which were subsequently extended from time to time by the State Government. As per last orders of extension dated November 28, 1983, which are at pages 116 and 117 of the present writ petition, such period of deputation was extended till May 1, 1984, in case of the petitioner No. 1 and February 28, 1984, in case of the petitioner No. 2.
(3.) The petitioner No. 3, Narayan Chandra Dutta was sent "on deputation" to the said Corporation from Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as C. M. D. A) and the said authority had sent the petitioner No. 3 on specific terms and conditions, which is Annexure 'A' at page 90 of the writ petition. It further appears that in respect of petitioner No. 3, on acceptance of terms and conditions by the said Corporation, the C.M.D.A. by its order dated May 22, 1080, placed the services of the petitioner No. 3 at the disposal of the Corporation, on the terms and conditions set out wherein it has been made specifically clear that the period of deputation should not exceed 3 years in any case and thus according to the petitioners, the original period of deputation of petitioner No. 8 having ended on May 27, 1984, as per the terms of deputation of service and "the lien" of the petitioner No. 3 stood terminated with effect from May 28, 1984.;