- (1.) M/s. Bhikusa Yamsa Kshatriya and M/s. Bastiram Narayandas (owner of bidi factories at Sangamner in the District of Ahmednagar) hereinafter referred to collectively as 'the appellants', moved the High Court of Judicature at Bombay under Art. 226 of the Constitution praying for a writ or direction declaring S. 3 (3) (iv) of the Minimum Wages Act, Xl of 1948 and a Notification dated April 19, 1955 issued by the Government of Bombay in exercise of the authority vested under the Act "ultra vires, void and illegal" because the said enactment and the Notification infringed the guarantee of equal protection of the laws, and affected the rights of the appellants to carry on their lawful business, and for an order declaring that the appellants were not bound by the said Notification and were not liable to pay wages to the Bidi workers at the rates prescribed by the Notification, and for consequential relief. The High Court dismissed the petition, for in their view S. 3(3) (iv) of the Minimum Wages Act and Notification dated April 19, 1955 fixing minimum rates of wages for bidi workers in the localities of Sangamner and Akola did not violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and that the State of Bombay had "in issuing the Notification revising the rates of minimum wages followed the procedure prescribed in that behalf by the Act. "Against the order, with certificate of fitness granted by the High Court under Art. 133, (1) (c) of the Constitution, this appeal is preferred by the appellants.
(2.) The Minimum Wages Act,1948 was enacted by the Parliament to provide for fixing minimum rates of wages in certain employments. The validity of the Act as it stood in the year 1956 falls to be determined in this appeal. We will therefore refer to the Act as it stood in the year 1956, and will omit reference to amendments in the Act by enactments since that year. Sub-section (1) of S. 3 authorises the appropriate Government in the manner prescribed to fix minimum wages payable to employees employed in employments specified in Parts I and II of the Schedule, for the whole State or for a part of the State or for any specified class or classes of such employment in the whole State or parts thereof and to review at such intervals as the State thinks fit the minimum rates of wages so fixed and to revise the rates. By sub-s. (3) the State is authorised in fixing or revising minimum rates of wages to fix - (a) different minimum rates of wages for (i) different scheduled employments; (ii) different classes of work in the same scheduled employment; (iii) adults, adolescents, children and apprentices; (iv) different localities. Section 5 sub-sec. (1) prescribes the procedure for fixing and revising the rates of minimum wages. It is provided in so far as it is material that "in fixing minimum rates of wages in respect of any scheduled employment x x x or in revising minimum rates of wages the appropriate Government shall either -(a) appoint as many committees and sub-committees as it considers necessary to hold enquiries and advise it in respect of such fixation or revision, as the case may be, or (b) by notification in the official Gazette, publish its proposals for the information of persons likely to be affected thereby and specify, a date, x xxxx on which the proposals will be taken into consideration. " By sub-s. (2) the appropriate Government is authorised to fix the minimum rates of wages in respect of each scheduled employment after considering the advice of the committee or sub-committee or the representation received from persons interested. Section 6 empowers the appropriate Government to appoint Advisory Committees and sub-committees to enquire into the conditions prevailing in any scheduled employment and to advise the appropriate Government in making such revision in respect of such employment. Section 7 authorises the appropriate Government to appoint Advisory Boards for the purpose of co-ordinating the work of the committees and Advisory Committee and for advising the appropriate Government generally in the matter of fixing and revising the minimum rates of wages. Section 9 prescribes the composition of committees and Advisory Boards. Committees, Advisory Committees, and the Advisory Board are to be nominated by the appropriate Government and are to consist of persons representing employers and employees in the scheduled employments who are to be equal in number and independent persons not exceeding one-third of its total number of members. Section 10 prescribes the procedure to be followed in the revision of minimum rates of wages. By S. 20 power is conferred upon the appropriate Government to appoint regional authorities to hear and decide claims arising out of payment of less than the minimum rates of wages to employees employed in the localities. Section 26 empowers the appropriate Government to direct that the provisions of the Act or any of them shall not apply to all or any class of employees employed in any scheduled employment, or to any locality where there is carried on a scheduled employment. By S. 27 the appropriate Government is authorised to add to either Part of the Schedule any employment in respect of which the appropriate Government thinks that minimum rates of wages should be fixed under the Act. "Employment in any tobacco (including bidi-making) manufactory" is one of the items in Part I of the Schedule to the Act.
(3.) In exercise of the powers conferred by S. 5 the Government of Bombay by Resolution dated February 27, 1951 appointed a Committee to hold enquiry and to advise the Government in fixing minimum rates of wages in respect of employment "in any tobacco (including bidi-making) manufactory." The Committee consisted of three employers' representatives, an equal number of employees' representatives and an independent chairman. On 3-7-1952 the Government of Bombay appointed, in exercise of powers conferred under S. 6 a Committee to assist it in considering the question of 'revision of zoning' (and rates of wages, if necessary) made under orders regarding minimum wages for employment in any tobacco manufactory. An Advisory Board was also constituted by Resolution dated October 3,1953. The Committee invited suggestions from the Labour Unions of employees in the tobacco industry and also of the employers and submitted their report to the Government of Bombay. A notification operative from March 31,1952, was thereafter issued in exercise of the powers conferred by S. 3 (1) (a) of the Minimum Wages Act by the Government of Bombay after considering the advice of the Committee, fixing minimum rates of wages payable to workers employed in different industries in Zones I to IV specified in the Schedule appended thereto. Districts of Thana, Ahmednagar, East Khandesh, West Khandesh, Nasik, Poona, Satara, North Kolaba and Dangs in the State of Bombay were lincluded in Zone III. In Zone III in the Bidi making industry for malting 1000 bidis a minimum rate "of Rs. 2/- (without leaves)", was prescribed. By Notification dated June 30, 1955 issued under S. 26 (2) the Government of Bombay directed that for a period of three months with effect from 1-7-1955 the provisions of the Act shall not apply to bidi makers employed in the bidi-making industry in the localities of Sangamner and Akola and places within seven miles of their respective Municipal limits. This exemption was extended from time to time, till the end of December 1956, but by Notification dated 22-7-1956 the Government of Bombay cancelled the exemption with effect from 1-9-1956, in respect of Sangamner and Akola and places within seven miles of their respective Municipal limits. In the meantime by Notification dated 19-4-1955 the Government of Bombay, after considering the report of the Advisory Committee and after consultation with the Advisory Board, revised the minimum rates of wages of workers employed in the Bidi manufactories and fixed for the localities of Sangamner and Akola and places within seven miles of their respective Municipal limits, a minimum rate of Rs. 2/- for making 1000 bidis. After the exemption granted under S. 26(2) was cancelled workers employed in the Bidi industry in Sangamner and Akola and places within seven miles of their respective Municipal limits demanded wages at the revised rates. The employers having failed to satisfy their demands, applications were preferred by the workers under S. 20 of the Minimum Wages Act to the Regional authority appointed in that behalf. By order dated 6-11-1957 the authority under the Minimum Wages Act rejected the contentions raised by the employers and held that the workers were entitled to wages at the rates fixed by the Government under the Notification dated 19-4-1955 as from 1-1-1957, but not before that date. Aggrieved by that decision the appellants applied to the High Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution for writs declaring that the provisions of Section 3(3) (iv) of the Minimum Wages Act which authorized fixation of varying rates of minimum wages for different localities, and the Notification dated April 19,1955 were discriminatory and void, for they infringed the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The High Court dismissed the petition. In this appeal counsel for the appellants contends: (1) that S3 (3) (iv) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 confers arbitrary and uncontrolled power upon the State Government to fix rates of minimum wages in respect of certain localities, and thereby enables the Government to discriminate, contrary to the equal protection clause of the Constitution, against the employers carrying on their business in those localities, and on that account the exercise of the power so conferred also amounts to imposing unreasonable restrictions upon their right to carry on their business under Art. 19 (1) (f) of the Constitution; (2) that the Notification dated 19-4-1955 is discriminatory and violates the fundamental right of equality before law guaranteed by the Constitution; and (3) that Ss. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were contravened because the Committees were not validly constituted there being in the Advisory Board no representatives of employers in the Bidi industry; and therefore there was no lawfull revision of minimum wages under the Notification dated April 19, 1955. Section 3 of the Minimum Wages Act was impugned in this Court on the plea that it infringed Art. 19 (1) (f) of the Constitution in Bijay Cotton Mills Ltd. v. State of Ajmer, 1955 SCR 752: ((S) AIR 1955 SC 33). Mukherjee J., speaking for the Court in that case observed that having regard to the scheme of the Act and the purpose for which it was enacted, namely to secure to workmen in the enjoyment of minimum wages and to protect against exploitation it was necessary to put restraints upon their freedom of contract and such restraints could not be regarded in any sense as unreasonable. In a recent judgment of this Court in U. Unichoyi v. State of Kerala, AIR 1962 SC 13 it was observed that: "what the Minimum Wages Act purports to achieve is to prevent exploitation of labour and for that purpose authorises the appropriate Government, to take steps to prescribed minimum rates of wages in the scheduled industries. In an under-developed country which faces the problem of unemployment on a very large scale it is not unlikely that labour may offer to work even on starvation wages. The policy of the Act is to prevent the employment of such sweated labour in the interest of general public and so in prescribing the minimum rates of wages the capacity of the employer need not be considered. What is being prescribed is minimum rates of wages which a welfare State assumes every employer must pay before he employs labour.";