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TMI Blog1969 (9) TMI 113X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... questioning the validity of the impugned notification. The writ petition is filed by the All Mysore Hotels Association, Bangalore and the Madras Woodlands Hotel raising those very contentions. The impugned notification was challenged on several grounds before the High Court but in this Court only some of those grounds were pressed. The grounds urged in this Court are: (1) Section 5(1) of the Act is violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution as it confers unguided and uncontrolled discretion on the Government to follow either of the alternative procedures prescribed in cls. (a) and (b) of that sub-section. (2) The provisions of the Act are unconstitutional as they confer arbitrary power without guidance to the Central and the State Governments concerned to fix minimum rates of wages and thus interfere with the freedom of trade guaranteed under Art. 19(1)(g) of our Constitution. (3) It was incumbent on the Government to appoint a committee under s. 5 (1) (a) of the Act to inquire into and advise it in the matter of fixing minimum wages. Its failure to do so has resulted in fixing minimum wages arbitrarily. (4) Fixing of minimum wages under the provisions of the Act bein ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n 5 is important for our present purpose. It reads thus : (1) In fixing minimum rates of wages in respect of any scheduled employment for the first time under this Act or in revising minimum rates of wages so fixed, the appropriate Government shall either- (a) appoint as many committees and subcommittees as it considers necessary to hold enquiries and advise it in respect of such fixation or revision, as the case may be, or (b) by notification in the Official Gazette, publish its proposals for the information of persons likely to be affected thereby and specify a date, not less than two months from the date of the notification on which the proposals will be taken into consideration. (2) After considering the advice of the committee or committees appointed under clause (a) of sub-section (1) or as the case may be, all representations received by it before the date specified in the notification under clause (b) of that sub-section, the appropriate Government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, fix or, as the case may be, revise the minimum rates of wages in respect of each scheduled employment, and unless such notification otherwise provides, it shall come in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or different classes of employees in residential hotels and eating houses, on December 9, 1964 but no further action was taken on the basis of that notification. On October 28, 1966, the State Government after consulting the Mysore State Minimum Wages Advisory Board published in the Official Gazette fresh proposals under s. 5 (1 ) (b) for fixing minimum wages for different categories of employees in residential hotels and eating houses in the State. The parties affected were called upon to submit their representations regarding those proposals. Various representations from the interested parties were received. Thereafter the Minister for Labour summoned a meeting of the interested parties on April 27, 1967 for considering those proposals. That meeting was attended by the representatives of the employers as well as employees. It was also attended by the representatives of various hotel owners associations in the State. At the meeting the employers representatives pleaded that the minimum wages proposed to be fixed are excessive but the representatives of the employees asserted that the proposed rates are low and that they should be enhanced. After considering the written as well ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of industry as a whole, and not of each separate industry or branch is to be understood. From this analysis of the bases of fixing of the minimum wage, it will be seen that, as a rule, though the living wage is the target, it has to be tempered, even in advanced countries, by other considerations, particularly the general level of wages in other industries and the capacity of industry to pay. This view has been accepted by the Bombay Textile Labour Inquiry Committee which says that the living wage basis affords an absolute external standard for the determination of the minimum and that where a living wage criterion has been used in the giving of an award or the fixing of a wage, the decision has always been tempered by other considerations of a practical character. In India, however, the level of the national income is so low at present that it is generally accepted that the country cannot afford to prescribe by law a minimum wage which would correspond to the concept of the living wage as described in the preceding paragraphs. What then should be the level of minimum wages which can be sustained by the present stage of the country s economy ? Most employers and some Provi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l Mohta and Co. v. A. V. Visvanatha Sastri and anr. ([1955] 1 S. C. R. 448.) and the other decisions of this Court reiterating that rule. It is true that this Court has firmly ruled that the procedural inequality, if real and substantial is also within the vice of Art. 14. But then, before a power can be held to be bad the same should be an unguided and unregulated one. But if a power is given to an authority to have recourse to different procedures under different circumstances, that power cannot be considered as an arbitrary power. It must also be remembered that power under S. 5(1) is given to the State Government and not to any petty official. The State Government can be trusted to exercise that power to further the purposes of the Act. It is not the law that the guidance for the exercise of a power should be gatherable from one of the provisions in the Act. It can be gathered from the circumstances that led to the enactment of the law in question i.e. the mischief that was intended to be, remedied, the preamble to the Act or even from the scheme of the Act. We have earlier noticed the circumstances under which the Act came to be enacted. Its main object is to prevent sweate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t done by the Government. The legislature has determined the legislative policy and formulated the same as a binding rule of conduct. The legislative policy is enumerated with sufficient clearness. The Government is merely charged with the duty of implementing that policy. There is no basis for saying that the legislature had abdicated any of its legislative functions. The legislature has prescribed two different procedures for collecting the necessary data, one contained in s.5(1)(a) and the other in s. 5(1)(b). In either case it is merely a procedure for gathering the necessary information. The Government is not bound by the advice given by the committee appointed under s. 5(1)(a). Discretion to select one of the two procedures prescribed for collecting the data is advisedly left to the Government. In the case of a particular employment, the Government may have sufficient data in its possession to enable it to formulate proposals under s. 5 ( 1)(b). Therefore it may not be necessary for it to constitute a committee to tender advice to it but in the case of another employment it may not be in possession of sufficient data. Therefore it might be necessary for it to constitute a com ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fixing wages, the advice of the committee if one is appointed, or the representations on his proposals made by persons who are likely to be affected thereby. Consultation with advisory bodies has been made obligatory on all occasions of revision of minimum wages, and section 8 of the Act provides for the appointment of a Central Advisory Board for the purpose of advising the Central as well as the State Government both in the matter of fixing and revision of minimum wages. Such Central Advisory body is to act also as a coordinating agent for coordinating the work of the different advisory bodies. In the committees or the advisory bodies the employers and the employees have an equal number of representatives and there are certain independent members besides them who are expected to take a fair and impartial view of the matter. These provisions, in our opinion, constitute an adequate safeguard against any hasty or capricious decision by the appropriate Government . In suitable cases the appropriate Government has also been given the power of granting exemptions from the operation of the provisions of this Act. It is true that in those cases the validity of s. 5 was not challen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o fix the minimum wage on the appropriate Government under S. 5(1) is a quasi-judicial power and in exercising that power, it was incumbent on the appropriate Government to observe the principles of natural justice. The Government having failed to observe those principles, the fixation of wages made is liable to be struck down. It is unnecessary for our present purpose to go into the question whether the power given under the Act to fix minimum wages is a quasi-judicial power or an administrative power. As observed by this Court in A. K. Kraipak v. Union of India([1970] 1 S. C. 457.), the dividing line between an administrative power and quasi-judicial power is quite thin and is being gradually obliterated. It is further observed therein that principles of natural justice apply to the exercise of the administrative powers as well. But those principles are not embodied rules. What particular rule of natural justice, if any, should apply to a given case must depend to a great extent on the facts and circumstances of that case, the framework of the law under which the enquiry is held and the constitution of the tribunal or body of persons appointed for the purpose. Taking into cons ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... former and not the latter. The latter depends on the base year, which is not the same in all the towns and the prices of certain selected goods in each of the towns concerned in the base year and thereafter which again is likely to differ from town to town. The contention relating to the value of the food that may be supplied to the employee is not merely petty, it is misconceived as well. For example the employers contend that a minimum wage of ₹ 80/- per month in Bangalore and Mangalore for a cleaner is excessive at the same time they assert that the computation of the value of the food to be supplied to him at ₹ 40/- per month is not adequate. They fail to see the obvious contradictions in those pleas. In fixing minimum wages, a family of three members has to be taken into consideration. Further the food is not the only item taken into consideration. We have earlier referred to the other components of a minimum wage. Therefore if the value of the food supplied has to be increased, minimum wages also will have to be increased. Further the impugned notification does not authorise under S. 11(2) the payment of any portion of wages in kind. It merely says that if the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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