By these three original petitions, three unions of employees of two nationalized banks, who represent the highest paid section of employees in the Public sector, have come up with a claim for enhanced House Rent Allowance (HRA) and City Compensatory Allowance (CCA) relying upon a Notification issued by the Government of Kerala re-defining the Metropolitan areas in the Districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozikode for the purpose of Part IXA of the Constitution of India, in exercise of powers conferred by clause (c) of Article 243P of the Constitution of India, claiming that for the purpose of calculating HRA and CCA, that notification should be the basis, meaning thereby that population of the entire metropolitan area so defined shall be the basis for payment of HRA and CCA to employees working in any one of the branches situated in any of the places included in the metropolitan area so defined.

2. The service conditions of staff and officers of Banks in India are governed by the Sashri and Desai awards, bipartite settlements and agreements. According to the petitioners, presently, the criteria for payment of HRA is as under.

"8.House Rent Allowance

In substitution of Clause 3 of the Bipartite Settlement dated 29th June, 1990 with effect from 1st November, 1992 the house rent allowance payable shall be as under TABLE

Note

(1) Where quarters are provided, HRA shall not be payable, and the rent to be recovered shall be 4% of the first stage of the new Scales of Pay or the quantum recovered for the month of October, 1994, whichever is higher. No adjustment, however, shall be made in respect of the House Rent recovered for the period 11.1992 to 310.1994.

(2) All other existing provisions relating to House Rent Allowance shall remain unchanged"

The criteria for payment of CCA is as under:

"City Compensatory Allowance

In substitution of Clause 6 of the Bipartite Settlement dated 10th April, 1989, with effect from 1st November, 1993 the City Compensatory Allowance shall be payable as per the following revised rates:

TABLE Note

All other existing provisions relating to City Compensatory Allowance shall remain unchanged".

3. On 14-11-1995, the Government of Kerala issued S.R.O.No. 1435/95 redefining the territorial areas of the Districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode constituting metropolitan areas for the purpose of Part IXA of the Constitution of India, in exercise of powers under Article 243P(c) thereof. Thereupon, apparently assuming that the metropolitan areas so re-constituted to be the places for the purpose of calculating HRA and CCA, the Banks issued orders in August 1998, revising the HRA and CCA for the award staff and supervising staff at all branches established in centres under Thiruvananthapuram Metropolitan area, with effect from 14-11-1995. Later on, in January, 1999, the orders so issued were cancelled on the ground that the notification by Kerala Government is not meant for extension of the limits of urban agglomeration of Thiruvananthapuram and therefore the higher rate of HRA and CCA cannot be extended to the branches in areas included as part of the Trivandrum metropolitan area, as per the notification. Those orders cancelling the enhanced HRA/CCA to the additional centres added as part of the Trivandrum metropolitan area are under challenge in these original petitions.

4. The petitioners want the terms place, urban agglomeration and Metropolitan area to be read synonymous with each other. Therefore, they would argue that once the areas constituting the Metropolitan area is declared, the metropolitan area so declared would constitute the place for the purpose of HRA/CCA and therefore employees of all the branches in the areas included in the metropolitan area should be paid HRA/CCA in accordance with the population of that metropolitan area taken as a whole.

5. In answer, the Banks would argue that for the purpose of HRA and CCA, what is relevant is the urban agglomeration