- (1.)The Constitutional validity of the operative provisions of the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958 (Punjab Act 15 of 1958), which we shall hereafter refer to as the Act, is challenged in this writ petition filed under Art. 32 of the Constitution, seeking reliefs appropriate to such a challenge.
(2.)These are two petitioners and the nature of the business carried on by them, which is set out in the petition, indicates that they have combined with a view to bring up before the Court the implication of the enactment with reference to different types of business which traders in the Punjab might be carrying on and which would be impeded or restricted by the provisions of the Act. The first petitioner states that he has a shop at Mandi Dabwali in Hissar District where he carries on business in the purchase and sale of grains etc. in wholesale. The relevant averment in regard to the nature of his business is that the customers who supply him with goods bring them loaded in carts drawn by camels or bullocks and that these vehicles arrive at his godowns at all hours of the day and night. He also states that for the purpose of the purchases or sales effected by him, he receives messages by telephone and telegram both during the day and the night. These, according to him, render necessary, if he has to carry on business as he has been doing all along, that his place of business should be kept open practically the whole of the day and night, i.e., for all the 24 hours. The second petitioner states that he is carrying on a retail business on a small scale, and that he employs no outsider but attends to all the work in the shop himself, with the assistance, if necessary, of the members of his family. In this case also it is stated that the goods purchased are brought to him at all hours of the day and night and similarly he has to receive messages during the entire period. It is in this background that the petitioners desire that the Court should view the restrictions imposed upon them by those provisions of the Act which are challenged in the petition.
(3.)We shall now proceed to set out the impugned provisions of the Act with a view to determine whether for all or any of the reasons set out in the petition, any of them could be said to constitute an unreasonable restriction on the right to carry on trade or business so as not to be protected by Art. 19(6) of the Constitution which is the gravamen of the complaint formulated in the petition.