Bhagwati, J. - (1.) These appeals by special leave, are directed against a judgment of the Labour Court, Ludhiana in various application preferred by the appellants under Section 33-C(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. In order to appreciate the controversy which arises for determination in these appeals, it is necessary to notice the facts in some detail.
(2.) The appellants were at all material times workmen employed in Nangal Unit of the Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd., which is the respondent in those appeals. The Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd., (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation) is a limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and it is a Government company as defined in Section 617 of that Act. It has two units for manufacture of Fertilizers, one at Nangal and the other at Sindri. The Nangal unit of the Corporation went into production for the first time during the year 1962-63 and though it was the first year of production, it did well and as against a target of 2,80,000 tons, it produced 2,84,322 tons. The management, therefore, decided to pay ad hoc bonus to the employees of the Nangal Unit for good performance and a circular dated 29th October, 1963 was accordingly issued by the General Manager stating that ad hoc bonus will be paid to all employees whose basic salary on 31st March, 1963 did not exceed Rs.500/- per month and the amount of bonus would be one month's basic salary plus dearness allowance subject to the condition that no employee would get less than Rs.100/- or more than Rs.300/-. The employees of the Nangal Unit were accordingly paid ad hoc bonus to the extent of one month's basic salary plus dearness allowance for the year 1962-63. So far as the year 1963-64 was concerned the recommendations of the Bonus Commission had already been made by the time the management came to consider the question of payment of bonus for that year. Since according to the recommendations of the Bonus Commission minimum bonus equivalent to 4% of the total basic wage and dearness allowance was payable to the employees of the Nangal Unit, the management decided to sanction payment of such bonus to employees whose total basic wage and dearness allowance did not exceed Rs.1,600/- per month. No further amount was payable to the employees by way of bonus under the recommendation of the Bonus Commission, but even so, in view of the fact that the Nangal Unit had produced 3,74,000 tons as against the target of 3,70,000 tons, the management decided to give to the employees additional ex gratia payment for good performance so that the "compulsory bonus plus the ex gratia payment worked out to a month's wages' including dearness allowance. In implementation of this decision, the General Manager issued a circular dated 17th December, 1964, stating that bonus equivalent to 4% of the total basic wage and dearness allowance would be paid according to the recommendations of the Bonus Commission and additionally, ex gratia payment would be made to the extent that such payment together with the bonus would be equivalent to one month's basic wage plus dearness allowance. Here also there was a condition that the total payment in case of employees drawing basic wage up to Rs.500 per month would be subject to a minimum of Rs.100/- and a maximum of Rs.300/-. This condition was, however, subsequently varied by a circular dated 30th December, 1964, issued on behalf of the Corporation which provided that the minimum limit of Rupees 100/- in respect of bonus and ex gratia payment shall be raised to Rs.110/-. The amount of bonus and ex gratia payment aggregating to one month's basic wage and dearness allowance was accordingly paid to the workmen for the year 1963-64.
(3.) The question then arose in regard to payment of bonus for the year 1964-65. By that time the Payment of Bonus Ordinance, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the Bonus Ordinance) was already enacted on 29th May, 1965, and according to the provisions of that Ordinance the workmen were entitled to bonus equivalent to 4% of the basic wage plus dearness allowance. The General Manager of the Corporation, therefore, issued a circulat dated 27th September, 1965, stating that it had been decided to pay bonus for the year 1964-65 as provided in the Bonus Ordinance and according to the provisions of the Bonus Ordinance the amount of bonus that was payable was the minimum bonus equivalent to 4% of the total basic wage and dearness allowance or Rs.40/- whichever may be higher. It may be pointed out that by the time this circular was issued, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the Bonus Act) had already come into force on 25th September, 1965. But nothing turns upon it, because the provisions of the Bonus Act were in material respects identical as the provisions of the Bonus Ordinance. The workmen were paid the amount of this bonus at 4% of the total basic wage plus dearness allowance on 1st October, 1965, as stated in the circular.;