JUDGMENT :

1. These original petitions have been filed challenging a common order dated 28-11-2019 in O.A. No. 369/2018, O.A. No. 282/2017 and O.A. No. 176/2017 on the file of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench. Though the Central Administrative Tribunal had disposed of 11 cases through the same order, the challenge in these Original Petitions is confined to the orders in the three Original Applications mentioned above. The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESI Corporation) and its officers have filed O.P. (CAT) No. 17/2020 challenging the order in O.A. No. 369/2018; O.P. (CAT) No. 157/2020 challenging the order in O.A. No. 282/2017 and O.P. (CAT) No. 183/2020 challenging the order in O.A. No. 176/2017. The applicants in O.A. No. 282/2017 have filed O.P. (CAT) No. 51/2020 challenging the order in that original application to the extent that it denies certain reliefs sought for in that original application.

2. The facts fall in a very narrow compass. The Employees State Insurance Corporation which is a statutory body under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 had decided as a matter of policy to take over ESI hospitals in various states in the country togeth