JUDGMENT

Sema, J.-In all these petitions a common question of facts and law has been raised and as such they are being disposed of by this common judgment. For brevity, we are taking the facts from Writ Petition No. 238 of 2003.

2. Briefly stated the facts are as follows:-

The petitioners were serving in Indian Navy as Officers. They got released from Indian Navy and are now employed in Merchant Navy. As Officers in the Indian Navy they obtained, without examination, Certificates of Service (CoS) as the "Master of Foreign Going Ship" or "First Class Engineer" or "Second Class Engineer" as the case may be. The CoS was issued under Section 80, (as it then stood) of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (in short "the Act"). As the Naval Officers were granted Certificates of Service without examination, in most cases, the owners of the merchant ship would employ these persons in a lower rank than that shown in the Certificates of Service.

3. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers 1978 ("STCW 78") came into force globally. India was one of the signatories to the Convention and ratified the Convention on 16.2.1986. The object of the Con