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TMI Blog1985 (2) TMI 311X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Central Government may specify. It is also provided that the employer's special contribution in the case of factories or establishments in areas in which the provisions of both Chapters IV and V are in force shall be fixed at a rate higher than that in the case of factories or establishments situate in areas in which the provisions of the said Chapters are not in force. 2. The Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 was enacted to provide for certain benefits to employees in the case of sickness, maternity and employment injury and to make provisions for certain other matters in relation thereto. It is an obvious social welfare legislation in tune with the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Articles 41, 42 and 43 of the Constitution. It is a legislation which comes directly under entries 23 and 24 of List III of the VIIth schedule of the Constitution, which are, social security and social insurance; employment and unemployment , and welfare of labour including conditions of work, provident funds, employers' liability, workmen's compensation, invalidity and old age pensions and maternity benefits . The Act extends to the whole of India and comes int ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provision is made for the method and payment of contribution. Chapter V deals with benefits. Section 46 specifies the benefits to which the insured persons, their dependants and others shall be entitled. There are other detailed provisions indicating the manner of working out the various benefits. 3. Quite obviously the scheme could not be implemented straight away through out the country but could only be implemented by stages. It, therefore, became necessary for the Parliament to make certain transitory provisions, which it did by the introduction of Chapter V-A by Act 53 of 1951. The Statement of objects and reasons of Act 53 of 1951 may be usefully extracted here. The Statement is as follows: The Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, was passed by the Dominion Legislature in April 1948. It provides for certain benefits to industrial employees in case of sickness, maternity and employment injury. The Act permits the implementation of the scheme by stages. It was intended that the scheme should be implemented in the first instance in Delhi and Kanpur, but regional implementation of such schemes is always attended with certain practical difficulties. The principal dif ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... neficent, could not be introduced in the whole of the country all at once. Such beneficial measures which need careful experimentation have some times to be adopted by stages and in different phases, and so, inevitably, the question of extending the statutory benefits contemplated by the Act has to be left to the discretion of the appropriate Government. Appropriate Government under Section 2(1) means in respect of establishments under the control of the Central Government or a Railway administration or a major port or a mine or oil field, the Central Government, and in all other cases, the State Government. Thus, it is clear that when extending the Act to different establishments, the relevant Government is given the power to constitute a Corporation for the administration of the scheme of Employees' State Insurance. The course adopted by modern legislatures in dealing with welfare scheme has uniformly conformed to the same pattern. The legislature evolves a scheme of socio-economic welfare, makes elaborate provisions in respect of it and leaves it to the Government concerned to decide when, how and in what manner the scheme should be introduced. 5. In the present case th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people. In particular Articles 41, 42 and 43 enjoin the State to make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of any undeserved want, to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief and to secure by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent Standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities. It is in pursuance of these Directive Principles that we find entries 23 and 24 in list III of the VIIth Schedule of the Constitution. Both Parliament and the Legislature of any State, subject to conditions with which we are not concerned, have power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List III. It is pursuant to the power entrusted in respect of entries 23 and 24 of List III that Parliament has enacted the Employees' State Insurance Act. In our understanding, entries 23 and 24 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ew areas and though special contribution is levied from all employers wherever they be, in the case of employers, who straightaway receive the benefits of the insurance scheme, their rat of contribution is higher while in the case of employers, who do not yet receive the benefits of the scheme, their rate of contribution is lower. So far as the latter are concerned, the scheme is analogous to a deferred insurance policy which parents often take out on the Jives of their children, but which are to be effective only from a future date after the children attain a certain age, though premium is liable to be paid right from the start. Merely because the benefits to be received are postponed, it cannot be said that there is no quid pro quo. It is true that ordinarily a return in praesenti is generally present when fee is levied but simultaneity or contemporaneity of payment and benefit is not the most vital or crucial test to determine whether a levy is a fee or not. In fact, it may often happen that the rendering of a service or the conferment of a benefit may only follow after the consolidation of a fund from the fee levied. Hospitals, for instance, cannot be built in a day nor medica ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... make their contributions though at a lesser rate. 8. As anticipated by the Assam High Court, Chapter VA has now ceased to have effect from July 1, 1973, as already mentioned by us earlier. If the charge was to be levied as a fee, we are satisfied that there was sufficient quid pro quo. The learned Counsel for the respondent attempted to argue that simultaneity or contemporaneity of levy and service were of the essence of a fee and that it had been so laid down in Kewal Krishan v. State of Punjab AIR 1980 SC 1008. Inspiration for the argument was drawn from the statement in Kewal Krishan's (supra) case that the benefit should not be indirect and remote. The reference, there, to indirectness and remoteness was not made in connection with any delayed benefit from the point of view of time, but with reference to the very benefit itself and its connection with the levy. We once again have to reiterate what we were forced to point out in Amar Nath Om Parkash v. State of Punjab: [1985]2SCR72 that judgments of courts are not to be construed as Acts of Parliament. Nor can we read a judgment on a particular aspect of a question as a Holy Book covering all aspects of every question whe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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