BHAGAVATHI VILAS CIGAR CO Vs. LABOUR COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short question that arises for any determination in this case is whether the workmen-respondents are entitled to encash the leave which they were unable to take in the following circumstances.

(2.) ON 1st July, 1968, the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, came into force. By a notification issued under Section 26 of that Act on 16th September, 1968, the provisions of Payment of Wages Act became applicable to the workers under this Act. On 8th September, 1972, a Division Bench of this Court struck down Sections 26 and 27 of the Act, as ultra vires. The correctness of this judgment was canvassed before the Supreme Court when appeals were preferred. Their Lordships of the Supreme Court held both the sections as intra vires reversing the judgment of this Court as seen from the decision reported in Mangalore Ganesh Beedi Works v. Union of India 1974 I L. L. J. 367. Thereupon the workmen contesting respondents preferred applications under Section 33c (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act claiming monetary equivalent for the leave. which they could not take in view of this litigation. The Labour Court under the impugned order rendered in C. P. Nos. 139 to 141 of 1974, dated 24th September, 1975, has computed the benefit.

(3.) MR. V. Manivannan, learned counsel for the petitioner, urges that neither Section 26 nor Section 27 would enable the workers to claim the monetary compensation or equivalent thereof for the privilege leave which they could have enjoyed. In support of this submission, the learned counsel cites the decisions in Bombay Gas Co. Ltd. v. R. N. Kulkarni 1965 I L. L. J. 137 : A. I. R. 1965 Bom. 173, U. P. Electric Supply Co. Ltd. v. R. K. Shukla. 1969 II L. L. J. 728 : (1969) 36 F. J. R. 310 (S. C.) and the judgment of Ramaprasada Rao, J. , in Writ Petition No. 2459 of 1970.