VERMA MOTORS Vs. LABOUR COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE writ petitions are disposed of by this judgment as all of them arise oat of the order dated 15 November 1960, passed by. the authority to hear and decide claims for the payment of minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (hereinafter called " the Act ") A number of workmen filed claims under Section 20 (1) of the said Act for the amount paid less than the minimum wages against the owners of a number of motor buses. These claims covered the period, between 1 January 1959 and 30 October 1959. In order to appreciate the basis of their claims it is necessary to refer to the two notifications, one issued by the Government of Ajmer, and the other issued by the Government of Raj as than. In exercise of the powers conferred by 01. (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 3 and Sub-section (2) of Section 5,of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (Act XI of 1948), the Chief Commissioner, Ajmer, fixed the minimum wages payable to employees employed in the employment in public motor transport by notification No. 9/5/54 Lab. , dated 27 December 1954. Paragraph 2 of the said notification fixed the minimum basic rates of wages for the categories of workers specified in the table under that paragraph which included drivers, conductors and clerks. Paragraph 5 of that notification ran as follows: 5. When the cost of living index numbor for Ajmer rises by 20 points or more over the cost of living Index number at the same place in November 1954, a cost of living- allowance shall be paid to each employee to whom this notification applies at the rate of Rs. 6 per month for every such completed 20 points rise. The cost of living index number for the purposes of this paragraph shall in every case be calculated with 1944 as base.

(2.) AFTER the issue of this notification the erstwhile State of Ajmer merged in the State of Rajasthan on 1 November 1956. After the merger, on 9 March 1959, the Government of Rajasthan, in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-clause (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 3 read with Sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the Act, published the minimum wages payable to the employees in the employment in public motor transport in the State of Rajasthan (as reorganized) tinder the State Reorganization Act, 1956. This notification gave a schedule of minimum rates of wages in respect of certain workers including drivers, conductors and clerks. This notification further contained the following provision: Notwithstanding anything contained herein, if on the date the aforesaid rates come into force, the wages of an employee in the said employment exceed such rules, the wages actually received by the employee on the said day shall be the minimum rates of wages fixed in respect of him.

(3.) THIS notification came into effect after the expiry of two months from the date of the publication of the notification. Various drivers, conductors and clerks filed claims before the authority for payment of the amount to the extent it was less than the minimum rates of wages. Their claim was one based mainly on the ground that cost of living Index number had increased by more than 20 per cent over the cost of living number at the time when their wages were fixed at Ajmer and they were entitled under Para. 5 of the Ajmer notification to get Rs. 6 per mensem more which their employers had refused to pay them. The said authority by its order dated 15 November 1960 ordered that the employers of the undertakings given in that order dealing in the employment in public motor transport in the area comprised within the erstwhile state of Ajmer shall pay to all employees an increase of Rs. 6 per mensem with effect from 1 January 1959 in pursuance-of Para. 5 of the aforesaid Ajmer notification. The undertakings which were so directed included Verma Motors Company, Beawar, which is petitioner in Writ Petition No. 477 of 1951, Rajasthan Motors Company, Beawar, which is petitioner in Writ No. 490 of 1961 and Pratap singh Rathor and Sons in Writ Petition No. 495 of 1961. The grievance of the petitioner in Writ Petition No. 477 of 1981 is that the petitioner has been wrongly held liable to pay this allowance to the workers, Bhagwandas and Gangadhar who are respondents 2 and 3 in that writ petition. Similarly in Writ Petition No. 490 of 1961 the petitioner has taken a grievance that it had been illegally directed to pay allowance of Rs. 6 per mensem to all the employees. The petitioner 1b Writ Petition No. 495 of 1961 has made a similar grievance with respect to one of its employees.