MANGALAM CEMENT LTD Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the three writ petitioners are commonly aggrieved against the notification issued in the Government Gazette dated October 4, 1985 published in Rajasthan Gazette on December 5, 1985 under Subsection (2) of Section 10 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) in regard to the employment of contract labour in Mangalam Cement Ltd. , Associated Cement Company and Hindustan Sugar Mills Ltd. Udaipur Cement Works is a unit of Hindustan Sugar Mills. In the aforesaid notifications issued by the State Government, it was stated that in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (i) of Section 10 of the Act, the State Government after considering the recommendations of the Rajasthan State Contract Labour Advisory Board had ordered that the employment of contract labour in the process of loading of filled cement bags in Wagons/trucks and in the work of sweeping/cleaning of spilled cement occurring in the process of packing and loading shall be prohibited with effect from expiry of three months period from the date of publication of the notification in the official Gazette. Similarly, some other notifications were issued in this regard, in regard to some other cement factories including J. K. Cement Factory. Being aggrieved against the said notification as published on December 5, 1985, the petitioners have filed the abovesaid writ petitions for the purpose of determining the common question, the facts are being taken from the writ petition No. 486/86 Associated Cement Company Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan. The notification reads as under :

(2.) APART from the various grounds of discrimination and other grounds, the common ground which is applicable to all the writ petitions as argued is that the State Government was not competent to issue such notification and had no authority what-so-ever; it is submitted that the said notification is void ab initio as it could only be issued by the appropriate Government as defined Under Section 2 (1) (a) of the Act and as such is not binding on any of the petitioners. To decide the points involved in the case, it is necessary to reproduce certain provisions of the Act, the definitions and various notifications, The relevant portion of Section 10 of the Act reads as under :--

(3.) FROM the reading of Section 10 (1) of the Act, it is clear that the notification is to be issued by the appropriate Government after consultation with the Central Board as the case may be, State Board.