CHANDRASEKHARAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are manufacturers of beedi, and raw materials required for the beedi industry. THEse petitions along with a number of other petitions that were beard together question the validity of the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). THE actual prayers in these petitions and the others that were heard together varied-It may however be stated that a general attack has been levelled against the Act and particular provisions thereof have been singled out for special attack. In O. P. No. 3307 of 1968 the sections of the Act that are challenged are S. 2 (d ). (e), (f), (g), (i), (m); S. 3, 4, 7, 21, 26, 27, 33, 34, 44 (2) (m), (r), (s), (t), (u) and (w) of the Act and the rules in Chap. 5 of the Rules. In O. P. No. 1338 of 1969 the sections challenged are 1 (3), 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 21, 26, 27, 33, 36 and 44 and the rules framed under the above Act. THEre is an important additional prayer in O. P. No. 1338 of 1969 that the Act has been passed by the Parliament without legislative competence.

(2.) AT the time of the arguments the grounds urged before me were the following. (1) S. 1 (3) of the Act has conferred arbitrary powers on the State Government. This is the contention raised by counsel for the petitioner in O. P. 1338 of 1969. (2) Counsel for the petitioner in O. P. 1338 of 1969 also raised the contention that the Parliament has no legislative competence to pass the Act. (3) The petitioners in both the cases contended that S. 2 (g) (a) and 2 (m) have to be struck down.

(3.) TO understand these contentions, a few facts have to be stated.