Case: Management of the Kodaneri Estate Vs. Its Workmen

2. The appellant is a concern of a joint Hindu family, which owns the Kodaneri Estate in Kotagiri, a hill station in the Madras State. The Estate consists of 53 acres of coffee and 40 acres of tea plantations. The workmen of the Estate raised an industrial dispute in regard to bonus for the years 1952 to 1956. The Government of Madras, by its notification dated June 21, 1957, referred the following question for adjudication to the Labour Court, Coimbatore:"Whether the workers are eligible for any bonus for the years 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956  if so, to fix the quantum." The Labour Court held that the workers were entitled to bonus for 10 days in 1953, one month in 1954 and 15 days in 1956. In this appeal the Management of the Estate questions the correctness of that finding.

Court's reasoning:
5. We must observe at the outset that neither party bestowed sufficient care either to place the relevant material or to bring out the salient points before the Labour Court. Even so, we are satisfied that on the available material no case has been made out for awarding bonus for the years 1953, 1954 andmay be mentioned that no specific objection had been taken in that statement as regards either to extent of the capital invested or the fixed assets or reserves utilised as working capital; nor did they question the correctness of the rehabilitation amount claimed in the particulars furnished by the management. They also did not dispute the right of the managing member of remuneration, though they conceded the claim of the management to remuneration only to the extent of Rs. 100 per mensem. Thereafter, on December 6, 1957, both the parties filed a joint memorandum in the Court stating that they had no evidence to adduce apart from the documentary evidence already filed in the Court. It may, therefore, be held that both the parties accepted the correctness of the figures in the balance sheets and the particulars given by the management and the dispute was confined only to the objections raised by the workers in their statement filed on November 30, 1957. The Labour Court decided the dispute on the basis of the figures disclosed therein.7. If that were so, it cannot be disputed that on the basis of the figures accepted by both the parties, even after making, reasonable deductions to offset any possible exaggeration or inflation in the value of the capital assets and the reserves utilised as working capital, the interest payable thereon to the management being deducted as a prior charge, there will not be any surplus left for distribution as bonus to the workers. That apart, there is another item, namely, the remuneration payable to a member of the joint family managing the Estate. Having regard to the modest nature of the Estate and its income, we think that Rs. 1,000 per mensem as remuneration to the managing partner is too high and that Rs. 100 per mensem is too low and that Rs. 250 per mensem may be accepted as reasonable in the circumstances and for the purpose of this appeal.8. If the said three items are taken into account, it is not disputed that there will not by any surplus left for giving bonus for any of the disputed years.As there is no clear evidence in the case, we propose not to mention any definite figure, so that this decision will only govern the bonus years in question. We must make it clear that this decision is not intended to be a precedent to govern the question of bonus for any future year.