F.M. IBRAHIM KALIFULLA, J.

The above two writ petitions arise out of a common award passed by the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, dated September 7, 1999, in I.D. No. 13 of 1990. Writ Petition No. 7797 of 2000, has been filed by the All India Overseas Bank Employees Union, hereinafter called the union, in so far as it was aggrieved against that part of the award declining to give effect to the relief from April 1, 1978, i.e., the date of demand and the failure to order payment of 90 per cent of wages and benefits of clerical staff in the second respondent-bank hereinafter called the bank to part-time jewel appraisers. Writ Petition No. 12015 of 2000, has been preferred by the bank namely, the Indian Overseas Bank, challenging the award in I.D. No. 13 of 1990, in its entirety.

The genesis of the case is that in the bank management out of various credit facilities made available to its customers, one such facility was grant of agricultural jewel loan. Whenever a borrower tenders a jewel as a security for the loan, before sanctioning the loan, the genuineness and the fineness of the gold will have to be tested and for that purpose, the bank management retain the services of traditional goldsmiths as jewel appraisers. According to one of the jewel appraisers involved in this litigation, his services as jewel appraiser commenced in the bank management, as early as in the year 1972. The union claims that as early as in the year 1978, it took up the issue of absorption of jewel appraisers employed by the bank management at its various branches in India, that as the bank management was not inclined to respond to their demand, the union raised an industrial dispute on June 11, 1980, for absorption of the jewel appraisers as permanent part-time workmen that after failure of conciliation on February 5, 1982 the Government of India by its order dated January 20, 1983, declined to refer the issue for adjudication, whereupon, the union preferred Writ Petition No. 5766 of 1983, and by order dated November 22, 1989, this Hon'ble Court directed the Government of India to refer the dispute raised by the union for adjudication, pursuant to which, by order dated February 19, 1990, the Government of India referred the following issue for adjudication namely,

"Whether the demand of the All India Overseas Bank Employees' Union to treat the jewel appraisers engaged by the bank as part-time workmen of the bank is justified, if so, to what relief if any are they entitled to."

The said dispute was numbered as Industrial Dispute No. 13 of 1990 on the file of the first respondent. Before the Tribunal, the union contended that there are about 767 jewel appraisers engaged in the various rural branches of the bank management in the States of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and in few of the branches in Bihar and Orissa, that the services of the jewel appraisers are availed by the bank management on furnishing a cash security of Rs. 1, 000, that the jewel appraisers are paid on Commission basis, that as part of the jewel appraising job, they also attend to various clerical duties, that the equipments required for carrying out jewel appraisal work is furnished by the bank, that under similar circumstances, the jewel appraisers in Indian Bank numbering about 353 agitated for absorption as part-time clerks to be paid half of the benefit of clerical staff, which was ultimately granted as the said claim of the Indian Bank Jewel Appraisers was countenanced initially by the Tribunal which was ultimately confirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, that the nature of duties performed by the jewel appraisers in the respondent-bank being identical the claim of the union in the respondent-bank should also be granted.

The said claim of the union was resisted by the bank management contending that they are not "workmen" as defined under Section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the decision reporte