BOMBAY DYEING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is a limited Company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1879. It is carrying on business in the manufacture of textiles , and owns three factories called Spring Mills, Textile Mills and Bombay Dye Works, all of which are situate in Bombay. In its balance sheet for the year 1951, it has shown as one of its liabilities a sum of Rs. 1,65,731-1-0 under the heading "Unclaimed wages". This amount is made up of wages earned by the workmen in the factories but remaining undrawn by them, and represents accumulations from year to year ever since the formation of the Company which, it is stated, was about the year 1880. The dispute in this appeal mainly relates to this amount.

(2.) In 1953, the Legislature of the State of Bombay enacted the Bombay Labour Welfare Fund Act (Bom 40 of 1953) (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and it came into force on June 4, 1953. We may, at this stage, refer to the relevant provisions of the Act, as it is their validity that is the main point for our determination in this appeal. The preamble to the Act recites that "it is expedient to constitute a Fund for the financing of activities to promote welfare of labour in the State of Bombay and for conducting such activities". Section 2 is the definition section: sub-s. (2) defines an "employee" as meaning "any person who is employed for hire or reward to do any work, skilled or unskilled, manual or clerical, in an establishment". "Employer" is defined in sub-s. (3) as meaning "any person who employs either directly or through another person either on behalf of himself or any other person, one or more employees in an establishment and includes - in a factory and person named under S. 7 (i) (f) of the Factories Act. 1948,. As the manager". Sub-section (10) defines "Unpaid accumulations " as meaning

(3.) Then, there is S. 3, which runs as follows: