MUMBAI KAMGAR SABHA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeks a writ to quash Notification dated 16th May, 1983 marked as Exh. A in the compilation annexed to the petition and purporting to be under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948-hereinafter referred to as "the M. W. Act" or "the Act".

(2.) ONE of the beneficent legislations, enacted by this stage is the M. W. Act of 1948 Briefly, it seeks to provide the machinery for fixing minimum wages in certain employments. The first step is that the employment concerned should be made scheduled which is done under section 3 of the said Act. The employees in the employment which has become scheduled are then statutorily entitled to what is known as a minimum wage. The fixation of the minimum wage has to be done by the appropriate Government whether on its own or on the basis of advice received from a Committee or sub-committees. The printing industry has a large base in the State and the number of workers attached thereto is considerably high. This industry was made a scheduled industry and the State Government appointed a Committee under the Charimanship of Vasant Chotelal Chavan, a member of the then State Legislative Assembly to go into the question and submit its recommendations. Mr. Chavan presided over a Committee consisting of six representatives of the workers and six of the owners of the Printing Presses. The Member -Secretary was the Assistant Commissioner of Labour. This Committee visited various places in the State having printing presses, received memoranda from the employers and employees, recorded informations supplied by the persons questioned in response to a questionnaire drawn up by the Committee, heard the parties and thereafter submitted a report. In this report the workers of different areas were drawn into four zones and eight categories and the minimum wage payable to each category was suggested. This report together with its recommendation was accepted and in pursuance thereto was issued the impugned notification dated 16th May, 1983. Petitioners represent a Trade Union which had submitted a memorandum to the Chavan Committee. Petitioners complaint is that the report is an unreasoned document and that many factors taken into consideration by the Commit the were extraneous to the object of fixation of a minimum wage. As a result of these infirmities the report should not have been accepted. The Government while recording its concurrence with the recommendations of the Committee has not given any reasons for so doing. Petitioners seek a writ to quash the impugned notification and a consequential direction to the Government to issue a fresh notification having regard to the law applicable to the subject.

(3.) THE State in its return denies that the report and the notification suffer from infirmities. Stress is laid upon the fact that the report is unanimous and the result of considerable time and effort spent by the Committee to evolve a wage suitable to all the zones and after considering all the relevant factors.