JUDGMENT :

A.P. Shah, J.-This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India arises out of the award of the Industrial Tribunal, Mumbai in a dispute between Mukand Limited and its employees, delivered on March 26, 1998 in Reference (IT) No. 3 of 1993 under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as the Act. The petitioner Mukand Limited is a public limited company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. The Respondent No. 1 is Mukand Staff and Officers Association (shortly the association) registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926 representing the monthly rated employees in Kurla and Kalwe units of Mukand Limited.

2. By an order dated February 17, 1993 the Government of Maharashtra in exercise of its powers conferred by Section 10(1)(d) of the Act, referred an industrial dispute, which in its opinion, existed between the Mukand Limited and its monthly rated workmen abovementioned. The order of reference specified the heads of disputes mainly bearing upon the scales of pay, D.A. and other allowances and sundry matters connected with the conditions of services of the monthly rated employees. The reference was registered as Reference (IT) No. 3 of 1993. During the trial of the reference the association made an application for interim relief asking for lumpsum amount of Rs. 1000 per month to all monthly rated employees. The Tribunal by its Part I award dated January 19, 1994 directed ad hoc payment of Rs. 500 per month to all employees. The association thereafter moved second application before the Tribunal for further interim relief which came to be partly granted by the Tribunal vide order dated September 16 & 19, 1995 whereby the Tribunal directed payment to certain categories of employees as set out in the award on the basis of the basic pay slab ranging from Rs. 375 to 1050 per month. This Court by order dated February 27, 1996 passed in Writ Petition No. 342 of 1996 directed to credit the amount payable under the said award to the Provident Fund Account of the concerned employees. The final award was delivered on March 26, 1998. I shall now state the facts of the dispute in the reference from which this petition arises.

3. The petitioner is a public limited company engaged in steel making, manufacturing of industrial machineries and steel castings having two factories, one at Kurla and the other at Kalwe. The factory at Kurla is basically a foundry which manufactures steel castings. The company's foundry, which is the largest in the private sector, supplies bogies and couplers for the railways from Kurla Plant. The company also supplies castings to the sugar mills, cement industries etc. The factory at Kalwe has two divisions, steel plant and machine building division. The steel plant manufactures wide variety of special steels in India. The product range of steel plant comprises of ball bearing steel, stainless steel, high carbon wire rod, etc. The machine building division is engaged in design fabrication, erection and commissioning of EOT Cranes, rolling mills, chemical treatment plants, earth moving equipments. The company has employed around 1200 monthly rated employees at Kurla and Kalwe represented by the association in the present reference. This monthly rated staff and officers are classified in different grades starting with grade 12 at the lowest and going upto grade 01 and 00 at the highest (grade 10 was abolished 3 years ago). There are also daily rated workmen both at Kurla and Kalwe who are represented by the two separate unions and thus the total work force employed by the company is around 3400. The association representing the monthly rated staff and officers had entered into a number of settlements with the management the last being settlement dated February 24, 1989, which was effective till December 31, 1991. Before the expiry of the