- (1.) The Government of Tamil Nadu issued a notification under Section 10(1) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') prohibiting the employment of contract labour in the process of sweeping and scavenging in the establishments/factories which are employing 50 or more workmen. This prohibition is without reference to class of establishment which is involved or the conditions of work in a particular establishment. Under Section 10 of the Act the Government is obliged to consult the Tamil Nadu State Contract Labour Advisory Board (for short 'the Board') before issuing a notification in question. The appellants contended that there has been no effective consultation with the Board inasmuch as the only occasion when this aspect was considered was in the Sub-Committee meeting of the Board. The Minutes of the meeting made available to the Court disclosed that it recorded the views of the All India Manufacturers Organisation to the effect that the sweepers and scavengers work not for more than 2 to 3 hours daily and the view of the employees' representatives was that sweepers and scavengers are working for more than 120 days in a year. No decision as such was made but it was noted that the Government should take a decision in the matter. The said notification was challenged before the High Court in a writ petition. The High Court, following its decision in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited v. Government of Tamil Nadu, (1997) 3 Lab LN 495 (Madras), dismissed the writ petition holding that the notification had been issued after fully complying with the prescribed procedure under Section 10 of the Act to prohibit employment of contract labour after proper consultation with all relevant parties and evaluation of all relevant factors and materials by the State Government. Following this aforesaid decision, the writ petition filed by the petitioner also stood dismissed. Hence these appeals.
(2.) The Division Bench of the High Court in the course of its order noticed that apart from Sub-Committee report, to which reference has been made, the Minutes of the 17th Meeting of the Board also disclosed that the Board had elaborately considered the matter with reference to the question of issuing a draft notification abolishing contract labour system in sweeping and scavenging among other nature of work and thought it appeared that a further consideration by the Government was suggested during the course of deliberations, the Board did not appear to have thought any need for further consideration. On that basis the Division Bench took the view that since the matter had been left for consideration of the Government by the Board with its report and Government had also considered the need and necessity in the light of the requirements of the law as enumerated under Section 10(2) of the Act to issue the notification in question, there is no justification to interfere with the notification in question. Whereas at the time when the learned single Judge considered the matter the report of the Sub-Committee was not available at all.
(3.) Before us in these appeals against the order of the High Court what is principally contended is that (i) there is no effective consultation with the Board by the Government before issuing the notification in question, and (ii) the Government did not have any relevant material otherwise and, therefore, in the absence of relevant material the Government could not have been issued any notification and thus calls for interference at our hands.;