HIDAYATULLAH, J. - (1.) THE appellant in this appeal by special leave is the Transport and Dock Workers' Union which is a trade union of the employees employed in the Transport, Shipping, Dock and Port Trust Industries and employments in Greater Bombay. The union is representing 55 workmen belonging to four companies and the dispute is regarding bonus for the account year ending October, 1963. Three of the companies are shipping companies carrying on the business of the transport of goods by steamers and the fourth is a stevedore company. These companies are separately registered and publish separate balance sheets and profit and loss accounts but as the workmen are transferable from one company to another and the wages and conditions of service are the same in all the four companies, bonus and other benefits are claimed on a consolidated footing. This was expressly agreed to at the hearing before the tribunal. The industrial tribunal, Maharashtra, Bombay, presided over by Sri M. R. Meher held that the claim for bonus over and above bonus equal to one month's consolidated wages already paid to the workmen was not justified. The reason given by the tribunal was that after calculation according to the bonus formula was made, there was no available surplus but a deficit of Rs. 29, 15, 492. In fact, there is a deficit in all the shipping companies except one, and in the stevedore company there is a small surplus of Rs. 12, 582.
(2.) BEFORE the tribunal it was agreed that return on capital at 8 per cent and on reserves employed as capital at 4 per cent should be deducted from the gross profits. There was also no dispute about the depreciation claimed by the company. The objections were, therefore, two, and they related to rehabilitation charges and certain sums deducted as extraneous income. Real deficit arises because of rehabilitation charges and the learned Solicitor-General, who appeared for the workmen, conceded that unless that charge is eliminated there would still be no available surplus even if the extraneous income is added as claimed by him. We shall, therefore, very briefly, refer to the extraneous income first.The extraneous income deducted by the tribunal, which is sought to be added back, is the profit on the sale of steamship Janeta belonging to the Malabar Steamship Company, Ltd. It was sold at a profit of Rs. 9, 25, 000. The ship was purchased in 1952-53 for Rs. 37, 02, 428. Its written down value in the books of the company was Rs. 1. It was sold for Rs. 9, 25, 001 and there was a profit of Rs. 9, 25, 000. It is claimed by the workmen that the whole of this sum ought to be added back as scrap value of the ship. We would have considered this question on which much can be said but it would be a fruitless exercise, because the amount of Rs. 9, 25, 000 even if taken as part of the surplus leaves still a deficit of the order of Rs. 20, 00, 000. It is, therefore, obvious that the only question in this case is whether rehabilitation charges have been rightly calculated. Sri Meher took evidence in the case and came to the conclusion that the normal life of a ship must be taken as twenty years. He calculated replacement cost on the basis of quotations available for ships of the same kind and from the quoted price, he deducted the proportionate purchase price for the number of years the ship was used and this made the rehabilitation charges go beyond the money in hand, leaving a deficit of Rs. 20, 00, 000. The learned Solicitor-General argued that the companies have obtained loans at a very low rate of interest to purchase these ships but that in our judgment makes no difference in principle because rehabilitation is climbable so that money may be forthcoming for replacement when the existing ships have to be discarded and new ones have to be bought. The learned Solicitor-General did not advance any other argument except that we should take the life of the ship to be thirty and not twenty years. This is a matter of evidence and there was ample evidence before Sri Meher on which he could reach his conclusion and this Court does not interfere with a finding of fact reached on evidence to be found on the record. This point must also fail.When special leave was granted by this Court on 3 August, 1965, the Payment of Bonus Ordinance, 1965 (Ordinance 3 of 1965), had already been passed and the provisions of the Ordinance might have become applicable in this case because of the operation of S. 33 of the Ordinance. That section read : "33. Ordinance to apply to certain pending disputes regarding payment of bonus. - Where immediately before 2 September, 1964, any industrial dispute regarding payment of bonus relating to any accounting year ending on any day in the year 1962, and any subsequent accounting year was pending before the appropriate Government or before any tribunal or other authority constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), or under any corresponding law relating to investigation and settlement of industrial disputes in a State, such disputes shall be decided in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance. Explanation. - A dispute shall be deemed to be pending before the appropriate Government where no decision of that Government on any application made to it under the said Act or such corresponding law for reference of that dispute to adjudication has been made or where having received the report of the conciliation officer (by whatever designation known) under the said Act or law, the appropriate Government has not passed any order refusing to make such reference".
(3.) THE Ordinance came into force on 6 January, 1965 and the present award was made on 30 January, 1965. The Ordinance was prima facie applicable under S. 33 because immediately before 2 September, 1964 this dispute regarding payment of bonus was pending before a tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act and it related to payment of bonus for an accounting year subsequent to an accounting year ending on any day in the year 1962. At an earlier hearing the workmen intended invoking in their favour S. 10 of the Ordinance which read :"10. Payment of minimum bonus. - Every employer shall be bound to pay to every employee who has worked in the establishment for all the working days in an accounting year a minimum bonus which shall be 4 per cent of the salary or wages of the employee for the accounting year or forty rupees, whichever is higher, whether there are profits in the accounting year or not : Provided that where such employee has not completed fifteen years of age at the beginning of the accounting year, the provisions of this selection shall have effect in relation to such employee as if for the words 'forty rupees, ' the words 'twenty-five rupees' were substituted." ;