SHASHKIYA KSHETRIYA MUDRANALAYS KARMACHARI SANGH GWALIOR Vs. DY SUPRINTENDENT THE MANAGER GOVERNMENT REGIONAL P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner, Sangh, seeks a mandamus directing the Government to grant the Operative of the Government Regional Press, Gwalior, second saturday of the month a holiday as is allowed to other ministerial staff of the printing Press and a writ of Certiorari to quash the order of the Madhya pradesh Industrial Court, Indore, dated 26-6-1972 refusing to grant the right of holiday on second Saturday to the operatives of the Printing Press.

(2.) THE brief facts leading to this petition are these: The petitioner sangh raised a dispute that they were entitled to the holidays on second saturdays which were granted to the ministerial staff of the Printing Press and other Government Servants. Their stand is that all the Government employees are governed by the same set of rules in respect of their service conditions including the leave rules and holidays which they could enjoy. When the Government rules that govern the other employees also govern them, they could not be denied holidays on second Saturdays.

(3.) THE Government, keeping in view the recommendations of Justice tarachand Pay Committee constituted in the year 1950, ordered with effect from 1-1-1961 that (a) the hours of work for all Government officers excluding criminal and civil Courts will be from 10. 30 A. M. to 5 P. M. with a break of half an hour from 1. 30 P. M. to 2. 00 P. M. ; and (b) the second Saturday in each month will be a full holiday in all Government offices. The aforesaid pay Committee had considered the working hours of the ministerial employees of the Madhya Pradesh State Officers and recommended an increase of 15 minutes per day in the working hours. This worked to 11 hours per week or six hours in 9 months. Besides this, the casual leaves which were previously admissible to the ministerial employees at the rate of 15 days per year were curtailed to 13 days in a calendar year. The State Government in lieu of the above had passed the above order applicable to the Government offices by which the hours of work were changed and the second Saturday in each month was to be a full holiday. The Government, when the dispute was raised by the petitioner Sangh referred the matter for an arbitration before the Madhya Pradesh Industrial Court under section 51 (a) of the madhya Pradesh Industrial Relations Act, 1960.