CASHEW MANUFACTURERS AND EXPORTERS ASSOCIATION, PANKAJA SADANAM, ASRAMAM, KOLLAM AND OTHERS Vs. STATE OF KERALA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Minimum Wages Act has been enacted to provide for fixing minimum rates of wages in certain employments and the said Act came into force in the year 1948. Sec. 3 of the said Act lays down that the appropriate Government shall, in the manner set out in the Act, fix the minimum rates of wages payable to employees employed in an employment specified in Part I or Part II of the Schedule and in an employment added to either part of notification under Sec. 27. The said section further lays down that the Government shall review at such intervals as it may think fit, such intervals not exceeding five years, the minimum rates of wages so fixed and revise the minimum rates, if necessary.A proviso clause is added to the effect that where for any reason the appropriate Government has not reviewed the minimum rates of wages fixed by it in respect of any scheduled employment within any interval of five years, nothing contained in this clause shall be deemed to prevent it from reviewing the minimum rates after the expiry of the said period of five years and revising them. The minimum rates of wages of the employees employed in the cashew industry was revised by the Government more than five years back, as per G.O. (Rt) No. 3218/90/Labour dated 28th Dec., 1990. In order to safeguard the interest of the workers in the cashew industry taking into account the realities, such as increase in the cost of living etc., and the wage structure in the neighbouring States, the State of Kerala in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Sec. 5 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 appointed a Committee to hold enquiries and to advise the Government in the matter of revision of minimum rates of wages payable to the employees employed in the cashew industry in the State of Kerala and, under Sec. 9 of the said Act, nominated 16 persons (8 representatives representing the employers and 8 employees' representatives) to be the members of the said Committee and appointed Sri P. Madhavan, Deputy Labour Commissioner (Retired), Sastry Nagar, Thiruvananthapuram (an independent member) as Chairman of the Committee. This order was passed in G.O. (Rt) No. 2473/96/LBR dated 12th Sept., 1996. This was duly notified in the Kerala Gazette (Extraordinary) dated 16th Sept., 1996. All the said members nominated agreed to partake in the assignment. The Committee extensively toured in the entire State of Kerala and visited 25 factories functioning on Private Sector, Public Sector and Co-operative Sector and collected evidence directly from about 75 employees engaged in the processing of cashew nuts. Apart from that, two different questionnaires were prepared and sent to he filled by the employers as well as by the Trade Unions. The Committee also toured the two important States where more people are engaged in similar industries, namely, in Karnataka and Goa. Thereafter, the Committee decided the criteria to be adopted for fixing the least wages. Then the Committee took up the matter and after due consideration of all materials so gathered submitted its recommendations to the Government: Though, originally the term of the Committee was fixed only as six months to complete the work, it was further extended from time to time.

(2.) The Government of Kerala, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Sec. 3 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 read with sub-section (2) of Sec. 5 thereof and in supersession of the Notification No. G.O. (Rt) 3218/90/Labour dated 28th Dec., 1990, revised the minimum wages payable to employees employed in cashew industry as recommended by the Committee appointed under clause (2) of sub-section (1) of Sec. 5 of the Minimum Wages Act, in the State as specified in the schedule attached thereto and fixed 1st Jan., 1999 as the date from which the rates shall come into force. The above said facts are not in dispute among the parties.

(3.) The present Original Petition has been filed by the three petitioners. The first petitioner is the Cashew Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Kollam represented by its Secretary Sri. B. Gopinathan. Petitioners 2 and 3 are the operators of cashew factories. The prayer in this Original Petition is to quash the notification, namely, G.O. (Rt) No. 3981/98/Labour dated 14- 12-19998 (Ext. PI) which has been gazetted in the Kerala Gazette (Extraordinary) Vol. XLIII dated 18th Dec., 1998. There is yet another prayer to direct the respondents not to implement the said notification.