Gitesh Ranjan Bhattacharjee, J. - (1.) This writ petition has been filed by the Damodar Valley Corporation Workers' Union and by the President and the Secretary of the said trade union. The petitioner No. 3 is also a workman of the D.V.C. Co-operative Stores and Canteen Ltd. (respondent No. 4). The petitioner No. 1 is a registered trade union of the workers of the D.V.C. Co-operative Stores and Canteen situated in the Head Office premises of Damodar Valley Corporation "at Calcutta. The writ petition has been filed on the contention that the employees of the D.V.C. Co-operative Stores and Canteen, listed in the chart annexure-A to the writ petition, are being given only consolidated monthly salary on no work no pay basis but they are entitled to get regular pay and other benefits like gratuity, pension, provident fund etc. like the other employees of the D.V.C. It is the contention of the petitioners that the canteen is actually run and controlled by the Damodar Valley Corporation (D.V.C.) through the agency of the Co-operative society namely the D.V.C. Employees' Co-operative Stores and Canteen Ltd.(respondent No. 4). It is also the contention of the petitioners that the D.V.C. for the benefit of the members of the staff and its officers, runs the canteen through the intermediary, the Co- operative society, comprised of employees of D.V.C. Their grievance is that while as a matter of fact the employees of the canteen are the employees of the D.V.C. for all practical purposes, they are however not being given the benefit of any pay scale or adequate pay as enjoyed by the other employees of the D.V.C. more particularly those of the staff who are employed in the Inspection Bungalows and Directors' Bungalows of the D.V.C. and who perform duties of same nature there as performed by the canteen employees. On the other hand it is the contention of the respondent D.V.C. that the canteen is run, managed and controlled by the Co-operative society under the provisions, of its bye laws and the D.V.C. authorities have got no concern with the management, employment or control over the canteen or its employees except granting certain financial subsidy to the Co- operative society for running the canteen.
(2.) A glance at the details of staff of the canteen, annexure-A to the writ petition, will show that some of the employees of the canteen are working there ever since 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969. It is thus evident, that the canteen is in existence for at least about 30 years last. It is also evident that the canteen caters to the need of the employees of the D.V.C. who work there. There cannot be any denying of the fact that such canteen exists for the purpose of affording necessary food facilities to the employees working in the office. The necessity or the benefit of the existence of canteen service for the employees at the place of work needs no emphasis. The Factories Act contains provisions for maintaining statutory canteens in factories. The canteen maintained in the office of the D.V.C. is however, a non-statutory canteen but even then it has close nexus with the functioning of the office inasmuch as it affords opportunity to the employees to meet their vital need of getting ready supply of food on payment basis while they attend office without requiring them to go to distant places in search of food.
(3.) In the affidavit-in-reply it is stated by the writ petitioners that the infrastructure for running the canteen viz. premises, furniture, electricity, water are supplied by the respondent Corporation (i.e., D.V.C.) and the entire cost of the functioning of the canteen establishment and other miscellaneous expenses are determined and fixed and also borne by the respondent Corporation in the form of grants to D.V.C. Employees Co-operatives Stores and Canteens Limited. From annexure-E to the writ petition it will appear that the D.V.C. grant fund for running the canteen including payment of salary to the employees of the canteen and expenses under different other heads. Annexure-A to the affidavit in reply is also an order issued by the appropriate authority of D.V.C. by which the D.V.C. grant monthly amount for meeting the establishment cost of the canteen towards payment of wages to the workers and other miscellaneous expenses. Annexure- A to the affidavit-in-reply also includes a sanction order dated June 24, 1994 issued for modernisation of the canteen whereby an amount of Rs. 2,78,000/-was sanctioned by the D.V.C. for procurement of crockereies, utensils etc., trolley, hot box, refrigerator, deep fridge, furniture etc., for use in the D.V.C. canteen, Rs. 16,000/- for procurement and supply of liveries to the canteen workers and Rs. 1,06,000/- towards installation charges of pipe line gas connection. By order dated April 25, 1995 annexed to the affidavit-in- reply the D.V.C. authorities enhanced the amount of monthly grant payable to the D.V.C. Employees Co- operative Stores and Canteens Ltd. for meeting the establishment cost towards payment of wages to the workers of the canteen in view of the revision of the minimum rates of daily wages by the Government of West Bengal. All these documents indeed go to show that the D.V.C. has been undertaking the entire financial responsibility not only for running the canteen and for meeting the expenses towards the wages of the employees of the canteen but also for modernisation of the canteen. The monthly grant of the D.V.C. includes not only the wages of the canteen employees but also bonus, house rent allowance, ad-hoc allowance, safety allowance, tiffin allowance, medical allowance, and washing allowance per month for each of the canteen employees. The elaborate pattern of the grant for each employee under the different heads leaves no doubt that the D.V.C. has been playing the role of employer in respect of the canteen employees. In paragraph 7 of the affidavit-in-re-ply it is inter alia stated that the D.V.C. provides statutory canteens in Thermal Power Stations at Bokaro, Durgapur, and Chandrapura through contractors and that, in the Head Office also the D.V.C. provides canteen services since long back to its employees as a measure of non-statutory obligation and that the canteen in the Head Office of the Corporation has become a part of service conditions of the employees and the provision of canteen is a part of total corporation establishments. Evidently so far as the statutory canteens are concerned the D.V.C. has an obligation to maintain the same which they are doing through contractors. Annexure G to the writ petition is an extract of certain office order of the Government of India dated November 24, 1986 fixing the revised pay and allowances for non-statutory canteen employees on the basis of the 4th Pay Commission recommendations wherein it is inter alia stated that in pursuance of the interim orders of the Supreme Court of India to pay the non-statutory canteen employees the same rate and at the same basis on which the employees of the statutory canteens are being paid, the pay scales of the non- statutory canteen employees were revised as mentioned therein.;