SAMAJ BIRI CO Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On February 18, 1969, the State Government issued a notification under Section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act fixing the wages of various kinds of employees of the Bidi industry. Clause (b) of the said notification provided:

(2.) The appellant, who is a bidi manufacturer, filed a writ petition to challenge the validity of this clause. A learned Single Judge has upheld the validity of the first part of clause (b), that is, 'no deduction shall be made by the employer on account of supply of raw material's, but held that the second part of clause (b) 'all of which have to be supplied by him free of costs to the bidi maker' was ultra vires Section 3 because it has no relevance to the fixation of minimum wages. On this view the writ petition was partly allowed. The second part of cl. (b), that is, 'all of which have to be supplied by him free of costs to the bidi maker' was quashed. The rest of clause (b) was held valid and operative.

(3.) In regard to the first part of clause (b), the learned Single Judge held that it was protected by Section 12 (1). Sub-section (1) of Section 12 provides: