JUDGMENT S. VAIDYANATHAN, J. 1. The petitioner has filed this writ petition for the issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, to direct the third respondent to hold conciliation in a time bound manner so as to bring a settlement on the issue and to submit failure report to the first respondent in the event of failure of conciliation and also direct the first respondent to refer the issues regarding absorption and other issues for adjudication and direct the respondents 2 and 4 and their men, agents or subordinate officials to maintain status quo as on the date of raising of the dispute till the dispute is adjudicated by the competent Labour Court/Tribunal award costs. 2. At the time of hearing, two issues have been represented. The first one viz. with regard to non-employment of 4 workers viz. C. Sasikumar, B. Rajan, M. Kadar Mohideen and R. Srikanth and the second one viz. relating to the issue of non-absorption of 19 workers, including the abovementioned 4 workers, which has not been referred for adjudication. 3. During the pendency of the writ petition, some of the workers are in employment. The case of the management is that the employees are engaged as contract labourers and there cannot be any question of absorption. 4. It is submitted that tenders are called for entrustment of contract pursuant to the tenders, the successful bidder is given the option to appoint his men to do the work. Since the prayer is limited and that the issues to be referred for adjudication viz. whether the employees are contract labourers or contract employees and whether the Tribunal has got jurisdiction to decide the issue on a reference made by the appropriate Government, are all points to be agitated by way of an industrial dispute. This Court is not inclined to decide the issue, as it is not only premature but also amount to prejudging the merits of the parties. 5. Taking note of the rival contentions, the parties are directed to appear before the Conciliation Officer and submit the list of names of workers and the Conciliation Officer is directed to conciliate the matter, and in case of failure of conciliation, to submit a failure report, within one month from the date of receipt of a copy of the order. Taking note of the rival contentions, the parties are directed to appear before the Conciliation Officer and submit the list of names of workers and the Conciliation Officer is directed to conciliate the matter, and in case of failure of conciliation, to submit a failure report, within one month from the date of receipt of a copy of the order. In case of failure of conciliation, the additional failure report may be submitted to the Government along with the fresh list to be submitted by both parties and the Government is directed to refer the dispute, within one month from the date of receipt of the fresh failure report to the appropriate Tribunal/Labour Court on a reference with regard to non-absorption of the workmen, including the 4 workers who have been denied employment. Thereafter, the appropriate Tribunal/Labour Court is directed to adjudicate the issue on merits and pass appropriate award, within a period of one year from the date of reference. It is made clear that in case a reference is made to Tribunal/Labour Court, it shall not grant adjournment more than a week, at any point of time. During the pendency of the dispute, in case the employer wants to engage fresh contract, he can do so without prejudice to the rights of both parties and it is open to the management to engage the workers who are also concerned in the dispute. This will not give right to them to get permanent status and absorption and issue has got to be decided based on the nature of work. 6. The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms. No costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed.