The Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance (Amendment) Ordinance 20031 was promulgated on 4-7-2003 amending certain provisions of the Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act (TESMA), 2002. TESMA was enacted to empower the State Government to deal promptly and effectively with strikes in essential services. Invoking the provisions of the TESMA and the Ordinance, the State Government had Summarily dismissed from service over two lakh Government employees on its pay rolls, within a period of four days. Disposing of a batch of six petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Act and the Ordinance in T.K. Rangarajan v. Government of Tamil Nadu 2003 AIR SCW 3807 : (AIR 2003 SC 3032) : (2003 Lab 1C 2646) a Division of the Supreme Court, comprising M.B. Shah and A.R. Lakshmanan, JJ. held that the Government employees have no “fundamental, legal, more or equitable right” to go on strike even for a just cause. The Bench, howeve ....