Judgment

S. K. Das, J. : These are seven appeals on behalf of different Banks working in this country, some incorporated in India and some outside India. It is necessary that we should very briefly state the background of the industrial dispute which has given rise to these appeals. It is now well-known that there was a sharp rise in the prices of commodities during and after World War No. II. This rise in prices very seriously affected salaried employees belonging to the middle class including such employees in the banking industry. In or about the year1946 trade unions of bank employees presented demands for higher salaries and allowances and better conditions of service. In some cases notices of threatened strike were also served on the employers. The unrest became particularly acute in the provinces of Bombay, the United Provinces, and Bengal as they were then known. The local Governments of those provinces referred these industrial disputes for adjudication; this resulted in some regional awards which came to be known in Bombay as the Divatia Award, in the United Provinces as the B. B., Singh Award and in Bengal as the Gupta, Chakravary and Sen Awards. Notwithstanding these awa