RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J.

1. These eight writ petitions entail common questions of law & fact and are being listed together. WP(C) No.2521/1988 is the main petition of the MCD challenging / impugning the award dated 13th May, 1988 of the Industrial Tribunal. The other petitions are offshoots of the said award.

2. The award impugned in WP(C) No.2521/1988 was made on the following reference: "Whether all those "B" Grade Staff Nurses and Auxiliary Nurses, Midwives, who have completed three years services and are posted against the post of "A" grade staff nurse should be promoted to "A" grade staff nurse with retrospective effect, and, if so, what directions are necessary? Whether anomaly in the pay scales of "B" grade staff nurse and auxiliary Midwives or nurses be removed with retrospective effect i.e. from 01.01.1973 and if so what further directions are necessary?"

3. It was the claim of the workmen before the Industrial Tribunal that:

(i) The petitioner MCD has been running a large number of medical institutions.

(ii) In the said medical institutions, the petitioner MCD had created two types of staff nurses namely Grade "A" Staff Nurses and Grade "B" Staff Nurses; a third category known as Auxiliary Nurse / Midwives also existed. The pay-scales and other benefits of the three categories differed. Also, the nurses in Ayurvedic Hospital, Haiderpur had been placed in a lower pay scale than the Grade "B" Nurses in the other institutions.

(iii) Grade "B" Staff Nurses and Auxiliary Nurses / Midwives are normally deputed against the sanctioned posts of Grade "A" Staff Nurses and even otherwise are made to carry-on duties at par with Grade "A" Staff Nurses successfully for several years.

(iv) While Grade "A" Staff Nurses have the promotional avenue to the post of Matron, there is no such channel of promotion for Grade "B" Staff Nurses or the Auxiliary Nurses / Midwives.

(v) It was thus claimed that Grade "B" Staff Nurses who had been working on the post of Grade "A" Staff Nurses be declared as entitled to the scale of Grade "A" Staff Nurses. Instances of 27 such nurses were specifically given.

(vi) That though the work of Grade "B" Staff Nurses, Auxiliary Nurses/ Midwives was the same but they had been placed in different pay scales. Relief was also claimed for equalization of the pay scales of all the Grade "B" Staff Nurses including the nurses in Ayurvedic Hospital, Haiderpur.

4. The petitioner MCD contested the claim by contending:

(i) That the nurses working in Ayurvedic Hospital, Haiderpur are actually Dais / Midwives, a Class-IV post and are not nurses.

(ii) That as per the recruitment rules approved by MCD for different posts in the medical institutions of MCD, Grade "B" Staff Nurses are not promoted to Grade "A" because they do not fulfill the qualification of Grade "A" Staff Nurses; they are neither registered with the Nursing Council nor qualified as Grade "A" Staff Nurses as per the requirement of the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947. Only those Grade "B" Staff Nurses who acquire the qualification prescribed for Grade "A" Staff Nurses can be promoted to that grade. Neither of the 27 Grade "B" Nurses working against the posts / vacancies of Grade "A" Staff Nurses and whose instance was given in the claim petition have the requisite qualification of a Grade "A" Staff Nurse.

(iii) That the nature of work of Grade "B" Staff Nurses is different from that of Auxiliary Nurses / Midwives.

5. The Tribunal found:

(a) That the petitioner MCD in its written statement had neither admitted nor denied that the 27 Grade "B" Staff Nurses had been working for last several years against the posts / vacancies of Grade "A" Nurses. It was noted that most of the said 27 Grade "B" Staff Nurses had been working as Grade "A" Staff Nurses for between three to twenty years.

(b) That the standard of training of Grade "B" Staff Nurses is slightly lower than those of Grade "A" Staff Nurses. For admission to the course of Grade "B" Staff Nurse, th