MAHARASHTRA SURAKSHA RAKSHAK AGHADI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner herein is a registered Trade union which espouses the cause of the private security guards. Through the present Petition, the petitioner -Trade Union is seeking to challenge the two notifications dated 24. 7. 2003 and 8. 11. 2004 issued by the State of Maharashtra granting exemption under section 23 of the Maharashtra Private Security Guards (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act, 1981 (hereinafter referred to as "the said Act") and prays that the same may be quashed and set aside. These two notifications grant exemption to two agencies supplying private security guards to the factories and/or establishments run by the principal employer. This section 23 empowers the State Government to grant such exemption if the security guards concerned are in the receipt of benefits which are on the whole not less favourable to the security guards provided under the said Act or the Scheme thereunder. It is the contention of the petitioner - Trade Union that, in fact, they are not so favourable and, therefore, the present Writ petition.

(2.) BEFORE we examine the submissions of the various parties, we may advert to the salient features of the said Act and particularly Section 23 of the said Act granting exemption to the security guards from the coverage of the said Act or the Scheme in certain circumstances. This Act was passed by the legislature of the State of Maharashtra, principally for regulating the employment of private Security Guards employed in factories and establishments in the State and for providing better terms and conditions of employment and welfare through the Board established for that purpose. That is the declared object of this Act as per its preamble. This Board is constituted under Section 6 of this Act and is a body corporate. The State Government is supposed to prepare a scheme for ensuring regular employment of the Security Guards for the matters which have been mentioned in Section 3 of this Act. The Board is made responsible for administering the above Scheme under Section 8 of this Act. The Scheme gives detailed provisions with respect to the registration of the security Guards and regulating their recruitment and registration of the Guards and the principal employers and about the maintenance of the registers etc. The concepts of agency, employer, principal employer and security Guards are defined under the said Act. Under sections 19, 20 and 21 of the said Act, certain responsibilities are cast on the principal employers under the Workmens Compensation Act, 1923, Payment of wages Act, 1936 and the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961. Section 23 of the said Act provides for exemptions to the Security Guards employed by the agencies, if the security Guards are on the whole receiving not less favourable benefits than those under the said Act or the scheme.

(3.) THIS Section 23 of the said Act reads as follows:-