Judgment

DWIVEDI, J.:- All these appeals raise a common question of law and are being disposed of by a common judgment.

2. The employees of the Mysore State Road Transport Corporation are divisible into three classes: (1) the employees of the erstwhile Road Transport Department of the State of Mysore (hereinafter called the Mysore employees) (2) the employees of the Bombay Road Transport Corporation who were working within such districts of the State of Bombay as were integrated with the State of Mysore (hereinafter called the Bombay employees), and (3) the employees of the Road Transport Department of Hyderabad working in such areas as were integrated with the State of Mysore (hereinafter called the Hyderabad employees). The employer and the employees concluded an agreement on January 10, 1958 in respect of certain terms and conditions of service. The agreement was made operative from April 1, 1957. Clause 5 of the agreement dealt with the dearness allowance payable to the employees. The dearness allowance was fixed on a graduated scale. It appears that the Bombay and Hyderabad employees were getting a higher dearness allowance which was an accident of the reorganisation of States.