CHAMPAKLAL H THAKKAR Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this judgment we shall dispose of Criminal appeals Nos. 606 and 607 of 1979 both of which are directed against a judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Gujarat dated the 19th January 1979 upholding the conviction recorded against and the sentences imposed upon the three appellants under Section 22A of the Minimum Wages Act (hereinafter called the Act) in each of two cases by a Judicial Magistrate at Morvi

(2.) Some of the facts leading to the prosecution of the appellants are not in dispute and may be shortly stated. Appellant No. 3 is the Morvi Vegetable Products Ltd., a limited company carrying on the business of manufacture and sale of vegetable oil and vanaspati in Morvi. Appellant No. 1 is the Managing Director and appellant No. 2 the secretary of appellant No. 3 which is hereinafter referred to as the Company. On May 2, 1973, Kumari J. G. Mukhi, who is a Government Labour Officer-cum-Minimum Wages Inspector, visited the Company's establishment and found that the following documents which, according to her, the Company was bound to maintain in compliance with the provision of Section 18 of the Act read with the relevant rules of the Gujarat Minimum Wages Rules, 1961, had not been maintained by it.

(3.) At the trial the appellants pleaded not guilty. Their defence consisted mainly of the following pleas: (a) Different types of industries are covered by the Act but the Company does not run any such industry and is, therefore, not liable for any contravention of the Act or the Rules framed thereunder. According to the prosecution the factory run by the Company is an oil mill, an industry which is certainly covered by the Act. However, the Company is running a mill which manufactures vanaspati and vanaspati is not an oil but is vegetable ghee. Oil extraction is no doubt a major operation carried on by the Company but that operation is merely incidental to the preparation of vanaspati. No separate license for the oil expelling machinery used by the Company has been obtained from the State Government nor has sales tax been paid on the oil extracted by the Company. Vanaspati is manufactured by subjecting oil to the processes of neutralization, bleaching, deodorisation, hardening, hydrogenation, etc. and is a product quite different from oil.