B.P. DHARMADHIKARI, J.

1. The challenge in both these Writ Petitions filed under Article 226 of Constitution of India is to the action of Respondents/Employer of effecting the recovery of amount of H.R.A. i.e. house rent allowance allegedly paid in excess to Petitioners/Employees. Said recovery is on the ground that revised provision and formula for payment of H.R.A. evolved as per National Coal Wage Agreement VI, hereinafter referred to as NCWA-VI has been implemented with effect from 1/6/2001 and therefore payment of H.R.A. in accordance with NCWA-V from 1/7/1996 till 31/5/2001 on revised basic salary i.e. as revised by NCWA-VI was illegal and unwarranted. Petitioners have prayed for quashing & setting aside of the order as contained in fax message dated 5/3/2003 ordering its recovery. W. P. 2103/2003 is filed by ten individuals. There is also prayer to refund the amount if recovered with interest @ 18% per annum in W. P. 2190/2003. Petitioner therein is a trade union registered under the provisions of Trade Unions Act, 1926. In both these matters while issuing "Rule", interim relief has been refused. It is admitted position that thereafter Respondents have completed recovery of alleged excess amount of H.R.A. received by Petitioners. It is also admitted position that payment of H.R.A. as revised by NCWAVI was sanctioned to Petitioners on 14/06/2001 with effect from 1/6/2001. New facts were disclosed by Respondents during final hearing & hence, Petitioners filed Civil Application 4090/2007 and 4140/2007 in respective Writ Petitions for amendment and in reply thereto, Respondents have pointed out another decision dated 17/5/2004 by which said date "1/6/2001" is replaced by date "1/7/1999". Thus the period for which recovery is in dispute now stands curtailed and the same is from 1/7/1996 to 30/6/1999.

2. Service conditions of Petitioners are decided through various agreements which are popularly known as "National Coal Wage Agreements". Each agreement remains in force for 3 to 5 years as agreed therein. The chronological serial number of such agreement is added at its end to identify it and in present matter we are concerned with NCWA-V & VI. The agreements are entered into between the management and a joint body of management and Unions by formation of a body called as Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry (popularly known as JBCCI). NCWA-V was in force from 1/7/1991 to 30/6/1996 while period of NCWA-VI was from 1/7/1996 till 30/6/2001. It is not in dispute that NCWA-VI came to be finalised by JBCCI on 23rd December 2000. It is also not in dispute that Petitioners before this Court are Employees in urban area and as per its Clause 8.1.3 it was decided that for the purposes of payment of H.R.A. to Employees in urban areas, government classification would be followed and rate and date of payment was to be decided within one month and implementation instruction number 7 in this respect was issued on 5/1/2001. Petitioners are in Nagpur which falls in .A. class as per these agreements. As per relevant provision of NCWA-V for "A" Class cities rate of H.R.A. applicable was 25% of basic salary with maximum of Rs 1235/only. Implementation instruction No 27 as per Clause 8.1.3 of NCWA-VI came to be issued on 14/6/2001 and for Petitioners in "A" Class cities rate of H.R.A. was maintained at 25% of basic salary but ceiling i.e. maximum amount payable was increased to Rs 2350/only and this revised payment was made applicable from 1/6/2001. As already stated above later on this date has been moved back to 1/7/1999 as per implementation instruction No 43 dated 17/5/2004. Petitioners were paid arrears of H.R.A. at 25% of revised basic salary i.e. salary as revised according to NCWA-VI but then maximum amount or ceiling of Rs 1235/ has been adhered to. Respondents state that out of total 9 regions in which they function, such payment has been made only to pres