Falshaw, C.J. - (1.) THESE are 11 petitions (Civil Writ Nos. 785 -D to 795 -D of 1962) filed under Article 226 of the Constitution by firms or individuals who carry on the business of dealing wholesale in fruits and vegetables and are members of the registered Fruit & Vegetable Merchants' Union of Subzimandi, Delhi. Two complementary notifications of the Labour Department of the Delhi Administration dated the 30th of April 1962 under Sections 4 and 15(1) of the Delhi Shops and Establishment Act of 1954 are challenged.
(2.) THE matter arises in the following way. The Delhi Shops & Establishment Act came into force in 1954, its primary object being to regulate the working conditions of persons employed in shops and other like commercial establishments. Section 4 of the Act is headed "Exemption" and reads - Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the provisions of this Act mentioned in the third column of the Schedule shall not apply to the establishment, employees and other persons mentioned against them in the second column of the said Schedule Provided that the Government may, by notification published in the official gazette, add to omit or alter any of the entries of the said schedule and on the publication of such notification, the entries in either column of the said schedule shall be deemed to be amended accordingly." Section 15, as amended by Act XXI of 1961, is headed 'Opening and closing hours of shops and Commercial establishments' and reads - (1) No shop or commercial establishment shall, on any day, be opened earlier than such hour or closed later than such hour, as may be fixed by the Government by general or special order made in that behalf: Provided that any customer who was being served or was waiting to be served in any shop or commercial establishment at the closing hour so fixed may be served during the period of fifteen minutes immediately following such hour. (2) Before making an order under Sub -section (1) the Government shall hold an inquiry in such manner as may be prescribed. (3) The Government may for the purposes of this section, fix different opening hours and different closing hours for different classes of shops or commercial establishments or for different areas or for different times of the year. Section 16 of the Act also comes into play in the present case and it is headed 'Close Day' and the relevant portion reads - (1) Every shop and commercial establishment shall remain closed on a closed day. (2) In addition to the close day every shop and commercial establishment shall remain closed on three of the National holidays each year as the Government may by notification specify. Before the impugned notifications of the 30th of April 1962 were promulgated item No. (3) in the schedule of exemptions under Section 4 of the Act used to read - Thus there was no close day and no restrictions on opening hours for all shops dealing in fruits and vegetable whether wholesale or retail. By the impugned notification under Section 4 in the schedule a new item. No. (9), was substituted for the old item No. (3), reading - Retail shops dealing mainly in meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and milk products excluding ghee, ice -cream, cooked food, flowers, betal leaves, fruit and vegetables. That other notification needs to be set out in detail. It reads - In exercise of the power conferred by Sub -section (1) of Section 15 of the Delhi Shops & Establishments Act, 1954, and all other powers enabling him in this behalf and after holding the enquiry prescribed in Rule 7 -A of the Delhi Shops & Establishment Rules, 1954, the Chief Commissioner, Delhi, hereby makes the following amendments in his order fixing the opening and closing hours of shops in the Union Territory of Delhi and published with his notification No. F. 20(6)/(61) -Labour, dated the 17th of October 1961. These amendments shall take effect from the 7th of May 1962. AMENDMENTS (1) In the said order for the Words and figures open earlier than 9 O' clock in the morning and close later than 7 O' clock in the evening ' the words and figures 'open earlier than 9 -30 a. m. in summer and 9 a. m. in winter and close later than 7 -30 p. m. in summer and 7 p. m. in winter' shall be substituted. (2) To the said order, the following proviso shall be added, namely: Provided that the opening and closing hours of the following classes of shops shall be as shown against each. JUDGEMENT_20_LAWS(P&H)1_1963.htm
(3.) ON behalf of the Petitioners two attacks have been made on the notifications . The first ground was that there had been no compliance with the provisions of Sub -section (2) of Section 15, and the second was that in view of the nature of the business carried on by the Petitioners, which involves the handling at all hours of day and night of vast quantities of perishable fruits and vegetables arriving by road and rail for distribution both to the local markets and to neighbouring States, the restriction of the opening hours of their establishment and the imposing of close days amounted to interference with their right to carry on their business under Article 19 of the Constitution which in the circumstances was unreasonable.;