STATE OF BIHAR Vs. G N OJHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent was prosecuted in the Court of Miss A. V. Dean, Magistrate with second class powers, Ranchi, for having committed the offence under Clause 12(1) (a) of the Coal Mines Bonus Scheme, 1948, as also under Sub-clause (2) of the same clause. Sub-clause (1) deals with the requirement of the payment of bonus to the employees by the employer within three months of the accrual of the bonus i.e. within three months from the last date of each quarter in the year. Sub-clause (2) provides for submitting return of compliance with the aforesaid rule. The respondent was prosecuted along with two other persons, S. V. Parkhari and S. R. Pasbicha, as directors of Messrs Karanpura Dewarkhand Colliery Co. Ltd., in respect of a colliery owned by the Company, being Karanpura Dewarkhandi Colliery police-station Khelari, in the district of Ranchi. The prosecution was launched on the report of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Inspector, Ramgah, who, in course of his inspection of the records of colliery, noticed that bonuses to the employees were not paid in time for the quarters ending September 1955, December 1956 and March 1957, but they were all paid late on 31-1-57, 15-4-57 and 11-7-57, respectively. The report was made to the Regional Labour Commissioner, Dhanbad. After that a petition of complaint was duly filed by the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central), Dhanbad, on the 24th of February, 1958.

(2.) The prosecution case went on against all the three persons in the usual course. While writing her judgment, the learned Magistrate on reading Clause 12 of the Coal Mines Bonus Scheme, 1948, discovered that the person held to be liable was only "any employer" and that could not be taken to mean more than one employer at a time. Accordingly, she directed the prosecution by order dated the 18th of July 1959, to choose anyone of the three persons against whom the case would stand and to withdraw it against the remaining two. Prosecution, by a petition of that date, withdrew the case against two of the accused persons who were acquitted under Section 248, Code of Criminal Procedure, and confined it thereafter only to the respondent, G. N. Ojha.

(3.) The learned Magistrate held, on a consideration of the defence case, that there was sufficient cause for non-payment of bonuses to the employees within the time required under Clause 12(1) (a) of the Bonus Scheme, inasmuch as there were factors beyond the control of the employer, such as poor despatches, bank strike, fire in colliery and untimely allotment of wagons. Accordingly, she acquitted him of the charge under Clause 12 (1) (a) for delayed payment of bonus. She convicted the respondent, however, of the offence under Clause 12(2) for failure to file the return in time. She sentenced the respondent, accordingly, to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default, to undergo simple imprisonment for one month.