9911796707
TMI Blog1964 (4) TMI 122X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 6. New rates of minimum wages for workmen engaged in the Bidi making manufactories were notified by the Madhya Pradesh Government by a notification dated the 30th December 1958. The notification directed that these rates would come into force from January 1, 1959. The validity of this notification was however successfully challenged by the present appellant before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. To meet the situation the Madhya Pradesh Legislature enacted the Minimum Wages (Madhya Pradesh Amendment and Validation) Act, 1961-(Madhya Pradesh Act No. 23 of 1961). Section 31A which was introduced by this Act into the Central Act (No. 11 of 1948) provided that the rates of minimum wages fixed or revised under the notification of the 30th December 1958 shall be and shall always be deemed to have been validly fixed and revised and shall be deemed to have come into force on the date mentioned in the said notification, notwithstanding any judicial decision to the contrary or any defect or irregularity in the constitution of the Advisory Board under s. 7 of the principal Act read with s. 9 thereof or publication of the notification in the Gazette or noncompliance with any other requirement o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ds: 2. The expression used in this Act and defined in the minimum Wages Act, 1948 (XI of 1948), in its application to the State of Madhya Praderh shall have the meanings assigned to them in the said Act. 3. Notwithstanding anything contained in s. 5 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (XI of 1948), in its application to the State of Madhya Pradesh (hereinafter referred to as the said Act) or any other provisions contained therein relating to the fixation or revision of minimum rates of wages in scheduled employments and any judgment, decree or order of any court to the contrary, the minimum rates of wages in respect of employments in items 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and I 1 in Part I and in respect of employment in Part 11 of the Schedule to the said Act shall be and shall always, in respect of each employment, be deemed to be as specified in Table appended hereto and it is hereby enacted that the said minimum rates of wager, shall be payable by the employer in the said scheduled employments and be enforceable against him with effect from the 1st January 1959, as if the provisions herein contained have been in force at all material times. 4. The provisions of section 4-A, section 5A, in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at the rates mentioned in the Table appended to the Act. We are informed that the rates mentioned in the Table are identical with the rates mentioned in the notification dated the 30th December, 1958. The effect of enactment of s. 3 would therefore be the same as if the notification of 1958 had been validated. To say that, however, is not to say that this Act has validated or that even it seeks to validate the 30th December 1958 notification. On the face of it the legislature was fixing for itself the minimum rates of wages in certain scheduled employments. That is stated in the preamble and is plain from s. 3 itself. The fact ,that rates mentioned in the Table appended to the Act happened to be the same as rate;-, fixed elsewhere cannot reason,ably justify a conclusion that the validation of the old rates was being affected. Independent legislation does not cease to be so, merely because its effect is the same as it would have been if a validating Act had been passed. The contention that this Act was not independent legislation cannot therefore be accepted. Nor is it possible to accept the argument that the Act is an unreasonable restriction on the appellant's fundamental ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... terial provisions of the earlier Act of 1950 were validated and brought into force retrospectively from the date when the earlier Act had purported to come into force. Subsequently, the provisions of this Ordinance were incorporated in the Bihar Taxation on Passengers and Goods (Carried by Public Service Motor Vehicles) Act, 1961. Section 23 of the Act provided that any amount paid, collected or recovered or purported to have been paid, collected or recovered as tax or penalty under the provisions of Part III of the Bihar Finance Act, 1950 or rules made thereunder during the period beginning with the first day of April 1950 and ending on the thirty first day of July 1961, shall be deemed to have been validly levied, paid, collected or recovered under the provisions of this Act. It was urged that this retrospective operation for such a long period like 10 years itself made the provisions unconstitutional. In repelling this contention, Gajendragadkar, J. (as he then was) speaking for the Court observed thus: If a statute passed by the legislature is challenged in proceedings before a court and the challenge is, ultimately sustained and the statute is struck down, it is not unlike ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , together with the payment of such compensation as the Authority may think fit, not exceeding ten times the amount of such excess. It has further provided that the authority may direct payment of such compensation in cases where the excess or the amount due is paid by the employer to the employee before the disposal of the application. If the legal position were as urged by the learned counsel, that s. 3 made the new rates of wages for the past period payable on January 1, 1959 or the apprehension that the employer might be made to pay heavy compensation may well be true. Another consequence of that legal position would be that the employer would also be liable to prosecution under s. 22 of the Act for his omission to pay on January 1, 1959 the rates which were fixed first by the Ordinance and then by the impugned Act. We are satisfied however that s. 3 of the impugned Act does not make the new rates of wages payable on the 1st January 1959. The words used are......... and it is hereby enacted that the said minimum rates of wages shall be payable by the employer in the said scheduled employments and be enforceable against him with effect from the 1st January 1959, as if the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e on which the new rates would become payable. This indication is clearly given by the proviso to s. 4. The proviso (which has already been set out) is in these words: Provided that with respect to claims arising out of payment of minimum rates of wages specified in s. 3 pertaining to a period prior to the publication of the Madhya Pradesh Minimum Wages Fixation Ordinance 1962 (4 of 1962) in the Gazette, the period of one year referred to in the first proviso to subsection (2) of section 20 of the said Act shall be counted with effect from the 21st June 1962, the date of publication of the said Ordinance in the Gazette. The above provision that the period of one year referred to in the first proviso to sub-section (2) of s. 20 of the said Act shall be counted with effect from the 21st June 1962 is a clear statement of the legislature's intention that it is on the 21st June 1962 that the rates which had become enforceable under s. 3 with effect from 1st January 1959 became payable. That is how the High Court has construed the section and in our judgment that construction is correct. The appellant's apprehension that he might be made liable for payment of compensati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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