MAHARASHTRA SUGAR MILLS LIMITED Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are a company registered under the Indian Companies Act, and have got mills at Tilaknagar, District Ahmednagar, in the State of Bombay, for manufacturing sugar. For the purpose of their business, they employ muster labour and contract labour.

(2.) By a notification dated 8-1-1948, published in the Govt. Gazette, under S:2 (4), Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946 (Bombay Act XI [11] of 1947), the Provincial Govt. applied the provisions of the Act to sugar industry with effect from 12-1-1948. A dispute arose between the employees of the appellants including the seasonal and contract labour and the appellants as regards the demand made by the employees for payment of six months' wages as bonus for the year 1947-48 and as the dispute was not resolved by conciliation, the Govt. of Bombay issued the following notification on 1- 4-1949:

(3.) The appellants filed a petition in the High Court of Bombay, urging that contract labour were not in fact employed by them nor were they their employees within the definition contained in S. 3 (13) (a), Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946, and that being so, there was no industrial dispute between the appellants and the contract labour and the reference to the Industrial Court was without jurisdiction. It was prayed that the award be quashed. The petition was heard by Bhagwati J. and he held that the Industrial Court had no jurisdiction to make the award with respect to the contract labour as that Class of labour was not covered by the definition of 'employee' contained in the Act and he granted a writ of certiorai quashing the award.