METRO PACKAGING Vs. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners in this batch of writ petitions are stated to be manufacturing units functioning in an Industrial Estate. The dispute in the writ petitions concerns the right of the petitioners to engage workers of their choice for the purpose of carrying out the loading and unloading works in their establishments. The Industrial Estate is one situated in an area to which the functional operation of the Kerala Headload Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Scheme, 1983 (the Scheme) framed under the Kerala Headload Workers Act (the Act) is extended. The stand of the petitioners in the writ petitions is that the Act does not apply to them as their establishments would not fall under the Establishments included in the Schedule to the Act. It is alleged by the petitioners that nevertheless, the loading and unloading activities in their establishments are being obstructed by the workers registered under the Scheme on the ground that no one other than them can be engaged by the petitioners to carry out the said works. The petitioners therefore, seek police protection for carrying out the loading and unloading works in their establishments.

(2.) It is seen that interim orders have been granted in all these writ petitions permitting the petitioners to engage workers of their choice for carrying out the loading and unloading works in their establishments, and the works in the establishments are now being carried out on the strength of the said interim orders.

(3.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners, the learned counsel for the contesting respondents as also the learned Standing Counsel for the Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board.