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TMI Blog1975 (9) TMI 178X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the Rajasthan High Court by several employers in the Mica Mines in Civil Writ No. 406/1966 and 15 other writs. Several proceedings initiated on the basis of the impugned notification were also challenged by the employers. A Bench of the Rajasthan High Court allowed the writ applications, quashed the impugned notification and the proceedings taken in pursuance thereof. This appeal arises out of Civil Writ No. 406/1966 in which the employer is respondent no. 1. The notification dated 31-7-1965 was challenged on several rounds and we will be concerned with some of them in this appeal. The relevant facts arc these. For the purpose of revising the minimum wages fixed by the earlier notification dated the 24th-April, 1959, The State Government in the first instance appointed a Committee consisting of five members on the 17th May. 1962. The constitution of the Committee was, however, revised by notification dated the 26th November, 1962. This committee consisted of five members, two representatives of the employers, two representatives of the employees and one Professor K. S. Mathur, Head of the Department of Economics Degree College, Ajmer. The last was taken as an independent memb ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he procedure for fixing and revising minimum wages in respect of any scheduled employment. There are two types of procedure indicated in clauses (a) and (b) of sub-section (1). Obviously in the present case the procedure followed was the one provided in clause (a). We shall now read sub-section (2) of section 5 with the proviso appended thereto: 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 into force on the expiry of three months from the date of its issue: Provided that where the appropriate Government proposes to revise the minimum rates of wages by the mode specified in clause (b) of sub-section (1), the appropriate Government shall consult the Advisory Board also It would be noticed that the power to fix the minimum wages is the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d be excluded from the category of independent persons. These words have essentially been employed in contradistinction to representatives of employers and employees. In other words, apart from the representatives of employers and employees there should be persons who should be independent of them. It does not follow that persons in the service an employee of the Government were meant to be excluded and they cannot be regarded as independent persons vis-a-vis the representatives of the employers and employees. Apart from this the presence of high Government officials who may have actual working knowledge about the problems of employers and employee can afford a good deal of guidance and assistance in formulating the advice which is to be tendered under S. 9 to the appropriate Government. It may be that in certain circumstances such per sons who are in the service of the Government may cease to have an independent character if the question arise of fixation of minimum wages in a scheduled employment in which the appropriate Government is directly interested. It would, therefore, depend upon the facts of each particular case whether the persons who have been appointed from out of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt is directly interested The question as to whether in such a situation a Government officer appointed on the Board or a Committee can be said to be independent member or not will have to be cautiously considered when an appropriate occasion arises for the same. After all, even in such cases the final authority fixing or revising the minimum wages in a scheduled employment is the Government. (Government officers can undoubtedly come on the Board or the Committee as representatives of the employers. Whether in such a situation more Government servants can come in the category of the independent members is a question which is open to serious debate and doubt. But in the instant case on the authority of this Court it is clear that the constitution of either the Wage Committee or the Advisory Board Was not bad, is the Government was not an employer in the Mica Mines in respect of which employment only minimum wages were fixed by revision in the notification dated the 31st July, 1965. No procedure has been prescribed in the Act as to the method which the Advisory Board is to adopt before making its recommendations to the State Government. It can devise its own procedure and c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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