INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have heard Mr. D. Das, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Ms. N. Upadhyay, learned Advocate for the petitioner; and Mr. R.K. Dev Choudhury, learned Deputy Solicitor General of India for respondent Nos. 1 and 2; Ms. A. Bhattacharrya, learned Advocate for respondent No. 5.

(2.) The petitioner, which is a society registered under the provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 and is the pioneer and the oldest association of tea producers in India, has challenged the constitutionality and validity of the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 (in short, "Act of 2015"), which received the assent of the President on 31/12/2025 but was published in the Gazette of India only on 1/1/2016.

(3.) The primary challenge put up by the petitioner is to the provisions of Sec. 1(2) of the Act of 2015, which provides that the amending provisions of the Act shall be deemed to have come into force from the 1st Day of April, 2014. As a result of such amendment, two changes have been made in the Act of 1965, namely, (i) In Sec. 2(13), which defines the expression "employee", the ceiling on salary or wages has been enhanced from Rs.10,000.00 to Rs.21,000.00 and the other (ii) amendment of Sec. 12 of the Act, by which the amount in question has been raised from Rs.3,500.00 to Rs.7,000.00, or the minimum wage for the scheduled employee as fixed by the government, whichever is higher.