Case: Union of India and Another Vs. G.M. Kokil and Others

Briefly stated the admitted facts are: The India Security Press, Nasik is a very big establishment of the Central Government headed by the General Manager, who is also known as Master, India Security Press. Apart from administrative offices it has a factory. The Press has four wings, namely, (a) the stamp press, (b) currency note press, (c) new currency note press and (d) central stamp stores. There are various categories of workers who have been classified into two groups such as (1) employees working in the administrative offices and (2) those working in the factory. The 78 respondents, belonging to all the four wings, have been employees working in the factory (of these, R-1 to R-3 are Chief Inspectors (Control); R-4 to R-36 are Inspectors (Control); R-37 &R-38 are Senior Supervisors; R- 39 to R-52 are Supervisors; R-53 to R-7 7 are Junior Supervisors and R-78 is a Store Keeper). These 78 Respondents filed an application against the Appellants before the Central Government Labour Court, Bombay under s. 33C (2) ofthe Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 claiming ove r- time wages under s. 59 of the Factories Act. read with s. 70 of the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act. Their case was that though the normal working period for all those who were working under the roof of the factory was 44 hrs. per week, they were , along with the regular factory workers, required to work for more than 44 hrs. a week but the management had been causing loss to them by paying them, unlike the factory-workers, over-time wages at the basic rates even for work done beyond 44 hrs. whereas they were entitled to over- time wages at double the rate of their normal wages (inclusive of dearness allowance, etc.), and as such they were entitled to get the amount of difference ascertained, computed and paid to them; and they claimed this relief in respect of overtime work done during the past 12 years i.e. from 1-1-1956 to 30-8-1968. Along with the application they gave a detailed schedule and the particulars of their claim totalling to an amount of Rs. 7, 00, 000 andclaim was resisted by the Appellants on several grounds but we need mention only those grounds which have a bearing on the only point that was raised and argued before us by counsel for the appellants. Inter alia it was contended that none of the Respondents was a worker under s. 2 (i) of the Factories Act and as such they were not entitled to the benefit of s. 59 of that Act read with s. 70 ofthe Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948.

Reasoning: It is well-known that a non- obstnte clause is a legislative device which is usually employed to give over-riding effect to certain provisions over some contrary provisions that may be found either in the same enactment or some other enactment, that is to say, to avoid the operation and effect of all contrary provisions. Thus the non-obstante clause in s. 70, namely, "notwithstanding anything in that Act" must mean notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in that Act and as such it must refer to the exempting provisions which would be contrary to the general applicability of the Act. In other words, as all the relevant provisions of the Act are made applicable to a factory notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in it, it must have the effect of excluding the operation of the exemption provisions. Just as because of the non-obstante clause the Act is applicable even to employees in the factory who might not be workers under sec. 2(1), the same non-obstante clause will keep away the applicability of exemption provisions qua all those working in the factory. The Labour Court, in our view, was, therefore, right in taking the view that because of the non-obstante clause s. 64 read with Rule 100 itself would not apply to the respondents and they would be entitled to claim overtime wages under s. 59 of that Act read with s. 70 ofthe Bombay Shops and Establishments Act,for the appellants pointed out that if such construction was placed on s. 70 it will lead to an anomalous situation that even employees of a factory occupying positions of a Manager or a General Manager would become entitled to overtime wages which could not have been the intention of the Statebut that, in our view, is a matter of the State Legislature and not for the Court but it must be pointed out that since the rendering of the aforesaid decision by this Court in 1960 the State Legislature has not intervened, which perhaps suggests that the State Legislature is not keen to limit the operation of the non-obstante clause in any manner. The second contention must also fail.Counsel for the appellants made a feeble attempt to contend that n ot merely such of the respondents who were holding the posts of Senior Supervisors and Supervisors were not industrial employees but all the other respondents were also not industrial employees i.e. were not workmen under the Industrial Disputes Act. In the first place, the contention depends upon the appreciation of evidence led by the parties on the nature of duties and functions performed by the concerned respondents and it was on an appreciation the entire material that the Labour Court recorded a finding that having regard to the nature of their duties and functions all respondents, other than those who were holding the post of Senior Supervisors and Supervisors, were industrial employees, i.e. workmen under the Industrial Disputes Act and it is not possible for this Court to interfere with such a finding of fact recorded by the Labour Court. Even otherwise after considering some of the important material on record through which we were taken by counsel for the appellants, we are satisfied that the Labour Courts finding isin our view the question of proper construction of the said s. 70 is concluded by a decision of this Court in Shri B.P. Hira, Works Manager, Central Railway, Parel, Bombay, etc. v. Shri C.M. Pradhan etc.(1)