- (1.) The Petitioner is a Government company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. The principal business of the Petitioner is that of a ship owner and consists in plying the Petitioner's vessels and carrying passengers and cargo between various ports of India and other parts of the world. The Petitioner has two types of employees, viz. those who are employees on board its vessels and those who are employees at its various shore establishments who are normally referred to as its 'shore employees'.
(2.) Clause 15 of the Service Rules applicable to shores staff Other than officers provides that the Petitioner maintains a dispensary and a canteen in the office premises and further, that all employees will be supplied free of charge tea and/or snacks from the office canteen costing 50 paise per day of attendance and in addition, each employee would also be paid in cash an amount of 50 P. per day of attendance. Similarly, Clause 34 of the Shore Officers Service Rules provides that officer will be supplied free of charge tea and/or snacks from the office canteen costing Re. 1 per day of attendance.
(3.) In fulfilment of the above obligations, the Petitioner has maintained a canteen at its office premises at all material times. According to the Petitioner, the running of the canteen always carried on by independent caterers. The persons employed in the canteen were consequently employees of the caterers. At first, there was an outside caterer of the name of Sri S.K. Mukherjee. It may be mentioned at this stage that a copy of the agreement with regard to the running of the canteens by Sri S.K. Mukherjee was tendered in evidence before the Tribunal as Ex. 3 and is also annexed to the petition. The agreement dated October 23/24, 1967, clearly shows that the employees of the canteen were to be the employees of Sri S.K. Mukherjee.;