- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated January 29, 2010 passed by a division bench of the Calcutta High court in an intra- court appeal against the judgment of a learned single Judge of that court. By the impugned judgment, the division bench has carved out an exception in favour of the respondent, Port Trust of Calcutta (hereinafter, "Port Trust") from a notification issued by the Central Government under section 10(1) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (hereinafter "the Act") and held that the notification "would not in any way affect the right of the Port Trust to assign the work of laying and linkage of railway tracks as one time measure of (sic. to) RITES, another Central Government Organization".
(3.) The controversy in this case centres around a notification dated July 7, 2005 issued by the Central Government under section 10(1) of the Act. The notification was issued after due consultation with the Central Advisory Central Labour Board with regard to the conditions of work and benefits provided for the contract labour and other relevant factors enumerated in sub-section 2 of section 10 and it prohibited the employment of contract labour "in the works of sleeper renewal of railway Tracks, repairing, restoration and laying and linkage of tracks in the establishment of Kolkata Port Trust, Kolkata" with effect from the date of publication of the notification in the official gazette.;