Srikrishna, C.J.

These writ appeals can be conveniently disposed of by a common judgement since they raise the same issue as to the manner of fitment of employees of one bank into another on amalgamation under a scheme falling within the purview of Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and the manner of considering the equivalence of the experience of the employees in the transferor bank vis a vis those of the transferee bank. All these appeals arise out of a common judgement dated 30. 11. 1993 delivered by the learned single Judge disposing of the original petitions.

2. The delay is presenting W.A. No. 361 of 1994 against the judgement arising out of O.P.No. 9734 of 1988 is condoned, the appeal is admitted and heard by consent.

3. Truly speaking, contentions urged before us are no longer res integra, having been decided by the judgement of a Division Bench of this court and by a later judgement of the Supreme Court also. We shall, however broadly refer to the facts and the contentions and indicate how they are already decided by the said judgements.

4. For the purpose of delineating the factual matrix, we shall take the facts in W.A. No. 352 of 1994 as illustrative. The appellant in this appeal joined a private bank known as Bank of Cochin Limited on 1. 6. 1973. He was promoted as Junior Officer on 1. 11. 1976, further promoted as Grade III Officer on 1. 7. 1980 and then to the post of Branch Manager in 1985.

5. The Bank of Cochin Limited run into financial difficulties and was hardly able to carry on its banking business. Considering the overall public interest, the Government of India in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India imposed a maratorium on banking operations in Bank of Cochin Limited with effect from 27. 4. 1985. At this stage, it was open to the Government of India to direct winding up of the banking operations of the said bank, which should have caused serious prejudice to the interest of the public and depositors apart from throwing out of employement large number of employees employed in several branches of this bank. Instead of directing winding up of the Bank of Cochin Limited, Government of India in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India evolved a scheme for amalgamation of Bank of Cochin Limited with State Bank of India. This scheme was placed before Parliament, approved and came into operation with effect from 23. 8. 1985. The Scheme is produced at Ext. P1 to the original petition. This scheme has been framed under the provisions of Section 45 (1) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949. After the scheme was brought into force, the State Bank of India took the erstwhile employees of the Bank of Cochin Limited into its employement and fitted them into appropriate grades and paid them the salary and benefits which were paid to its employees of corresponding qualification and experience. While doing so, for the purpose of assessing the equivalence of experience, the State Bank of India decided that the services rendered by the employees of the Bank of Cochin would not be taken into account for any purpose other than the purpose of terminal or leave benefits and certain other perquisites. This meant that the erstwhile employees of the Bank of Cochin Limited absorbed as employees of the State Bank of India would be treated as having been employed in State Bank of India in appropriate grades from the date on which such absorption took place. This led to agitation by the erstwhile employees of the Bank of Cochin Limited, who felt that this was discrimination against them and also apprehended that their promotion prospects would be seriously prejudiced. A disoute was raised in this behalf by representation made to the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve Bank after considering the representation made by the said employees as well as by the State Bank of India decided that for the purpose of implementing the scheme and deciding the equivalence of experience, every two years service in the Bank of C