PARBHANI ZILLA MAZDOOR UNION Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for issuance of a writ for holding and declaring that the system of calling tenders and thereby fixing the rates of wages in regard to Scheduled Employment No.10 of the Scheme at Exh.A, are bad in law and prohibit respondents from continuing with the same.

(2.) Such of the facts as are necessary for the decision of this petition may briefly be stated as under :-

(3.) According to the petitioner in each of the Taluka of the Parbhani District a Government godown is located for storing foodgrains. In such warehouses/godowns the work of loading, unloading, stitching, weighment, etc. are done by the Hamals and some of the Hamals are working since last 20 years, while some of them are working from 5 to 6 years. All the Hamals have applied for registration to the respondent no.5 Board and are accordingly registered with the Board. The petitioner contends that respondent no.3 Collector and the Additional Collector called for tenders for handling of the foodgrains i.e. loading, unloading, stacking, stitching and weighment. According to the petitioner, the Collector and the Additional Collector used to declare the labour rates for a particular year for each of the Talukas of Parbhani District. According to the petitioner, the rates of wages which are fixed by the agreement with the contractors are grossly inadequate and it is the statutory duty of the respondent no.5 Board to fix the rates, particularly as per clause 32 of the scheme referred to above which is annexed to the petition at Exh.A.