CONSOLIDATED COFFEE LTD Vs. RADHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There petitions are disposed of by a common order since a common point arises for consideration in all these petitions.

(2.) The petitioner-Companies who are engaged (among other things) in the business of Coffee Curing have questioned the correctness of the order of the authorities constituted under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (in short 'the Act') holding that they are liable to pay gratuity to its employees for a period of 14 days at the rate of 7 days wages for each of the two seasons in a year. According to the petitioners, they being seasonal establishments, their employees are entitled to 7 days wages as gratuity on the basis that they work during only one season in a year and not two seasons as found by the authorities.

(3.) On facts there is no dispute between the parties. The case of the petitioners as could be seen from the material placed by them before the authorities is that they open their Curing Factory after the monsoon period and carry on the curing operations till the end of December and close the same till the arrival of the new crop, that is sometime in January and commence operations till the onset of the next monsoon. On this admitted fact, they have contended that they carry on business during one season only and therefore under the 2nd proviso to Section 4 of the Act they are liable to pay 7 days' wages as gratuity. That Section as it read prior to its amendment by Act No. 25/1984 reads as under :