The petitioner is the Director of a social
action group called Social Work and Research Centre operating in and around
Tilonia village in Ajmer district of the State of Rajasthan. The Social Work
and Research Centre is duly registered society and since February 1972, it
has been actively engaged in the work of upliftment of Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes in different areas and particularly in and
around Tilonia village. It operates through various groups and the present writ
petition has been filed by the petitioner for the purpose of remedying
gross violations of the Minimum Wages Act,100 1948 which have been discovered
by one such group. These violations, according to the petitioner,
have been taking120 place in the following circumstances and they need to be
redressed through judicial intervention. The Public Works Department of
the State of Rajasthan is constructing Madanganj Road close to village Tilonia.
According to the State Government, it is a part of famine relief work
undertaken with a view to providing relief to persons affected by drought and
scarcity conditions. The State Government in the Public Works Department
has engaged a large number of workers for construction of this road and200 they include women belonging to
Scheduled Castes. It is common ground that the minimum wage for a construction
worker in Rajasthan is Rs. 7 per day and it was asserted on behalf of the
petitioner and not disputed on behalf240 of the State Government that the Notification fixing the minimum
wage of Rs. 7 per day does not specify any particular quantity of work to be
turned out by the worker in order to be entitled to this minimum wage.
Now the practice followed by the Public
Works Department for engaging workers for the construction work is to issue
an300 identity card
to every resident in the famine affected area who registers himself with the
patwari. The identity card would show the number of members in the
family of the card-holder including males, females, and children. Every
resident in the famine affected area would be entitled to be employed in the
famine relief work undertaken by the State Government360 on production of the identity
card. This way, a large number of workers including women belonging to
Scheduled Castes are engaged in the construction work of the Madanganj Road.
The workers employed in this construction work are divided into gangs400 of 20 persons or multiple thereof.
There is a separate muster roll for each such gang and the work done by it is
measured every fortnight and payment is made by the Public Works
Department to the Mate who is the leader of the gang according to the
work turned out by such gang during each fortnight. The Public Works Department
has fixed a certain norm of work to be turned out by each gang before
the workmen belonging to480 such gang can claim the minimum wage of Rs. 7 per day, with the
result that if any particular gang500 turns out work according to the norm fixed by the Public Works
Department, the Mate would be paid such amount as would on distribution give a
wage of Rs. 7 per day to the workmen constituting such gang. If less work is
turned out by such gang, payment to be made to the Mate of such gang would be proportionately
reduced, and in that event, the wage earned by each member of such gang
would fall short of the minimum of Rs. 7 per day. The petitioner has stated in
the writ petition that as a consequence of this600 practice followed by the Public
Works Department, workmen belonging to most of the gangs receive a wage very
much less than the minimum wage of Rs. 7 per day as illustrated by a few
instances set out in Annexure I to the writ petition. The petitioner has
also claimed that even within the gang itself, differential payments are
made to the workmen without any visible principle or norm and it is not uncommon
that a worker who has put in full day's work throughout the period of the
fortnight, may get less than the minimum wage of Rs. 7 per day,700 while a worker who has put in much
less work may get more than the proportionate wage due to him.720 This system of payment adopted by
the Public Works Department created considerable discontent amongst the women
workers belonging to Scheduled Castes who were engaged in this construction
work. On 21st August 1981, about 200 to 300 such women workers approached the
Social Work and Research Centre seeking advice as to what course of action
should be adopted by them for the purpose of eliminating differential
payments in wages and securing payment of minimum wage of Rs. 7 per day for800 each worker.
Mrs. Aruna Roy, the Development Coordinator of
the Social Work and Research Centre thereupon contacted Shri Atul Gupta, Assistant
Collector, and both of them immediately proceeded to the site of the
construction work. On their arrival at the840 site, an impromptu meeting
took place where the women workers gave vent to their grievances which included
inter alia complaint in regard to the wide difference in respect of
payments made by Mates to several gangs for the same category of work
performed and pointed out that differentials in payments also existed between
the women workers working in the same900 gang and performing the same
category of work. These differential payments in wages were made by the Public
Works Department to the gangs allegedly on the basis of the quantity of
work turned out by each such gang. According to the petitioner, even
within the gang itself, there were differentials in payment of wages to the
workers resulting in perpetuation960 of inequality. The petitioner in his capacity as Director
of the Social Work and Research Centre filed the present writ petition
challenging the system of payment of wages to the workers and seeking a writ of
mandamus directing the State1000 Government to comply with the prescribed rates of minimum wages
under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 as applicable in the State of
Rajasthan. When the writ petition came for hearing before us, the State
Government produced the Rajsthan Famine Relief Works Employees (Exemption from
Labour Laws) Act, 1964 and relying upon this statute, the State Government
contended that since the construction work of Madanganj Road was a famine
relief work, the Minimum Wages Act, 19481080 was not applicable to employees
engaged on this construction work by reason of section 3 of this Act.
The1100 Exemption Act is
a Rajasthan statute enacted on 7th September 1964 and it is deemed to
have come into force with effect from 1st July 1963. Section 2 clause (b) of
this Act defines famine relief works to mean works already started or which
may hereafter be started by the State Government to provide relief to persons
affected by drought and scarcity conditions. Labour Law is defined in section 2
clause (c) to mean any of the enactments as in force in Rajasthan
relating to Labour and specified in the Schedule. The Minimum Wages Act,
1948 is1200 one of the enactments specified in the Schedule to
the Exemption Act.
