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2. Petitioners 1 and 4 in O.P. No. 5976 of 1982 are two unions of employees of the 1st respondent - Kerala State Electricity Board, for short the Board. The other petitioners in O.P. No. 5976 and all the petitioners in O.P. Nos. 6208 and 6404 of 1982 are Assistant Engineers of the 1st respondent Board. The grievance of the petitioners is against the orders of suspension issued by the Chief Engineers of the Board under whom the petitioners-Assistant Engineers work. These orders of suspension are produced as Ext.P4 series in O.P. No. 5976 of 1982 and as Ext. P3 series in the other two original petitions. The designation of the post of Assistant Engineer as originally juinior Engineer. The Industrial Tribunal, Alleppey in its Award in I.D. 45 of 1958 dated 30th October, 1961 held that Junior Engineers were workmen within the meaning of the term 'workmen' in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The duties of Assistant Engineer as defined in the Annexure to Order EB-II/24780/75 dated 25th February, 1977 are the same as those of the Junior Engineers before the post was redesignated as Assistant Engineer. In O.P. No. 947 of 1981 this Court held that the order dated 19th January 1980 insisting that a promotee from the category of workman to an officer will take charge of the higher post after relinquishing his or her membership and connection with the trade unions is violative of Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution of India and opposed to the principles of natural justice and quashed that order. Under the guise of introducing an amendment to the Kerala Government Servants' Conduct Rules, 1960 as adopted by the Board, the Board issued Ext. PI order dated 17th May, 1982 to circumvent the decision of this Court in the above O.P. Against Ext.Pl the 1st petitioner in O.P. No. 5976 of 1982 and the representatives of the two other unions filed O.P. No. 4019 of 1982 before this Court, and this Court has stayed Ext. PI.

6. On the question whether the Assistant Engineers are workmen, the contention of the learned Counsel for the petitioners was that Junior Engineers of the Board were declared as workmen as defined in Section 2(s) of the Act by the Industrial Tribunal, Alleppey, The posts the petitioner Engineers hold are only the same posts redesig-nated as Assistant Engineers and hence Assistant Engineers are only workmen. According to the learned Counsel Ext R-l issued by the Board cannot in any way change the position. The learned Counsel for the Board contended that not only the post was redesignated as Assistant Engineers, by Ext. R-l new duties and responsibilities were also allocated to the Assistant Engineers and hence the Assistant Engineers cannot be workmen. In support of his contention, reference was also made to the Full Bench Decision of this Court in Umayammal v. State of Kerala 1983-I L.L.J. 267 where this Court held that Assistant Engineers of the Public Health Engineering Department hold supervisory posts and will not be workmen. The salary of the Assistant Engineers is above Rs. 500/-, Going by Annexure-I to Ext. R-l which enumerates the powers and duties of the Assistant Engineers it cannot be said that they have no supervisory capacity. So, the Assistant Engineers are employees who come under the excluded category of Section 2(s)(iv) of the Act and are not workmen.