Case: State Of Uttar Pradesh And Others Vs. Basti Sugar Mills Co., Ltd

The Indian National Sugar Mills Workers Federation, Lucknow, served notices on various sugar factories in Uttar Pradesh on December 15, 1949, in which they made six demands. We need, however, mention only one of them as that alone is in controversy in this appeal. That demand related to the bonus for the year 1948-49 and to the restoration of the reduction which had been made in the previous years bonus. By that notice the Federation threatened a strike in the industry with effect from January 16, 1960, if the demands were not met by the sugar factories. Since this situation brought into existence an industrial dispute, the Government of Uttar Pradesh, in exercise of the power conferred by Ss. 6 and 10 ofthe Industrial Disputes Act, 1947(XIV of 1947) appointed a Court of Inquiry and referred the dispute to it. The notification also stated the points which were referred to the Court of Inquiry. That notification was twice amended but nothing turns on those amendments. A full enquiry was held by the Court of Inquiry at which the representatives of both the employers as well as the employees were represented and material was placed before the Court of Inquiry by both the sides. The Court of Inquiry submitted its report to the Government of April 15, 1950. On receipt of this report the Government of Uttar Pradesh published the report in the Uttar Pradesh gazette on May 8, 1950, as provided for in S. 17 ofthe Industrial Disputes Act,1947.On July 5, 1950, the Government of Uttar Pradesh, in exercise of the powers conferred by S. 3(b) of the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, issued a notification directing the various sugar factories to pay bonus to their workmen for the year 1948-49 as well as to pay certain amounts as bonus for the year 1947-48. A further direction was made in the notification for payment of retaining allowance to the skilled seasonal workmen and clerical staff with effect from the off season in the year 1950. Thereupon the Indian Sugar Millers Association, which is an Association of sugar factories in India and is registered under the Trade Union Act made a petition before the High Court at Allahabad under Art. 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ against the Government of Uttar Pradesh prohibiting the Government from enforcing the notification. The writ petition was dismissed by the High Court on September 14, 1950, on the ground that the Association had no legal interest in the matter. Thereupon various sugar mills preferred separate writ petitions before the High Court, the respondents before us being one of them. As many as fourteen grounds were taken on their behalf in their writ petition. We are, however, concerned with only three of them to which Mr. G. S. Pathak, who appears for the respondents confined his arguments. Before we refer to those grounds we would complete the narration of facts. The High Court of Allahabad allowed the writ petitions, in so far as the question of payment of bonus was concerned, though Sapru J., one of the judges constituting the Full Bench, expressed a doubt as to the correctness of the view that the order of the State Government as regards the payment of bonus was invalid. After the decision of the High Court, the State of Uttar Pradesh applied for a certificate under Art. 133(1)(b) and Art. 133(1)(c) of the Constitution. The High Court having granted the certificate, the present appeal has been brought to this Court.

Reasoning: 4. We entirely agree with the learned judges of the Allahabad High Court that cl. (b) of S. 3 cannot be given a retrospective effect. But we are unable to agree with them that the State Government in making a direction to the employers to pay bonus for the years in question purported to give a retrospective operation to the provisions of that clause. The order made by the State Government in regard to bonus is to the effect that it shall be paid for the year 1947-48 to those persons who worked during that year and for the year 1948-49 to those persons who worked in that year. This payment was directed to be made within six weeks of the making of the order. By giving this direction the State Government did no more than attach a condition to the employment of workmen in the year 1950-51 in sugar factories affected by the order. That is all that it has done. Mr. Pathak contended that bonus has certain attributes of a wage and wage being a matter of contract can only be a term of employment agreed to between the employer and the employee but could not be a condition of employment which could be imposed by a Government acting under a statute.We agree that normally wage is a term of contract but it would be futile to say that it cannot be made a condition of employment. The Minimum Wages Act provides for the fixation of a statutory minimum wage payable to a worker in respect of certain types of employments and is an instance of wage being made a condition of employment. That apart, whether wage or bonus is a terms of a contract or a condition of employment it is clear that section 3 empowers the State Government to require the employers and workmen or both to observe any term or condition of employment for a specified period. Since the law enables the State Government to impose a term it is apparent that the legislature which enacted that law did not import into that word a consensual sense. We cannot, therefore, accept the argument that under cl. (b) it was not open to the State Government to make the payment of bonus to workmen a condition of their employment in future and thus augment their past wagesThe effect of that order is merely to require the employer to pay an additional sum of money to his employees as a term and condition of work in futureThe answer to that is that under the order of the Government such bonus is payable only to those workers who had worked during the years in question and not to new employees. It is further to be borne in mind that in the dispute in question the employees were bargaining in their collective capacity and, therefore, the question whether the personnel forming the employees of the factories in July, 1950, when the order was made by the Government, and in the years 1947-48 and 1948-49 to which the dispute relates was the same is quite immaterialWe also concur with the observations of the learned judge that by coming to the conclusion that the State Government was not passing an order which will have retrospective effect but was passing an order which was to ensure that the workmen to be employed in the year 1950 would work in a contented manner. It must not be forgotten that the dispute was in the present, that is, it existed when the impugned order was made, though its origin was in the past. What the order did was to resolve that dispute and this it could only do by removing its cause9. We entirely agree with Mr. Pathak that the normal way of dealing with an industrial dispute under the Act would be to have it dealt with judicially either by conciliation or by adjudication and that judicial process cannot be circumvented by resort to executive action. The proceeding before a conciliator or an adjudicator is, in a sense, a judicial proceeding because therein both the parties to the dispute would have the opportunity of being heard and of placing the relevant material before the conciliator or adjudicator. But there may be an emergency and the Government may have to act promptly "for securing the public safety or convenience or the maintenance of public order or supplies and services essential to the life of the community or maintaining employment." It was, therefore, necessary to arm it with additional powers for dealing with such an emergency. Clause (b) of S. 3 was apparently enacted for this purpose. An order made thereunder would be in the nature of a temporary or interim order as would be clear from the words "for such period as may be specified" appearing therein and from the second proviso to S3. Under this proviso where an industrial dispute is referred for adjudication under cl. (d) an order made under cl. (b) cannot be enforced after the decision of the adjudicating authority is announced by or with the consent of the State Government. It would, therefore, follow from this that where the Government has made an executive order, as it did in this case, under cl. (b) of S. 3, it is open to the aggrieved party to move the Government to refer the industrial dispute for conciliation or adjudication under cl. (d) of S. 31. In our view, therefore, the provisions of cl. (b) of S. 3 are not in any sense alternative to those of cl. (d) and that the former could be availed of by the State Government only in an emergency and as a temporary measure. The right of the employer or the employee to require the dispute to be referred for conciliation or adjudication would still be there and could be exercised by them by taking appropriate steps. Upon the construction we place on the provisions of cl. (b) of S. 3 it is clear that no question of discrimination at all arises. Similarly the fact that action was taken by the Government in an emergency in the public interest would be a complete answer to the argument that that action is violative of the provisions of Art. 19(1)(g). The restriction placed upon the employer by such an order is only a temporary one and having been placed in the public interest would fall under cl. (6) of Art. 19 of the Constitution.