REGIONAL DIRECTOR EMPLOYEES STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION Vs. BOMBAY METAL AND ALLOYS MFG CO PVT LIMITED BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above first appeal was filed by the Regional Director of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation again whom an application was filed by the respondent Bombay Metal and Alloys Manufacturing Co. Pvt. Ltd., the employer-company, under S. 75 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, wherein it was declared by the Judge of the Employees' Insurance Court, Bombay, by his judgment and order dated September 22, 1972, that the employees' contribution and the employer's special contribution were not payable on the quarterly attendance-cum-production bonus paid to the workmen, as such quarterly payment is excluded from the definition of "wages" as given in S. 2(22) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948.

(2.) The decision of the learned Judge of the Employees' Insurance Court is challenged in the above first appeal by the Regional Director. Mr. Jaykar, the learned counsel appearing for the appellant-Regional Director, submitted that the learned Judge committed a substantial error of law in not analysing and interpreting S. 2(22) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 properly and in not applying his mind to the contents of the settlement under which the employer had given attendance-cum-production bonus to the workers employed on daily wages in its workshop in the black-smith and welding departments.

(3.) The written settlement between the workers and the employers was embodied in the writings given by the Managing Director of the employer-company, the relevant extracts of which are produced at Exts. 2 and 3, Ext. 2 being of May 22, 1947 and Ext. 3 being of March 6, 1962. There is no dispute that Ext. 2 and Ext. 3 were in force in workshop in the blacksmith and welding departments between 1963 and 1965 with respect to which years the Regional Director was demanding the employees' contribution and the employer's contribution regarding the attendance-cum-production bonus.