CHAMPAK LAL H. THAKKAR AND OTHERS versus STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANOTHER

Citation: [1981] 1 S.C.R. 440 · Decided: 18-08-1980 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI · Disposal: Dismissed

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Judgment (excerpt)

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440 
;CHAMPAK LAL H. THAKKAR AND OTHERS 
v. 
STATE OF GUJARAT AND ANOTHER 
August 18, 1980 
[S. MuRTAZA FAZAL Au AND A. D. KoSHAL, JJ.] 
Minimum Wages Act Section 22A read with Guj~rnt Minimum Wages Rules 
1961 Section 2(e), 2(g) Item 5 of Part-I of Schedule thei'eto-"Employment in 
any oi? mill"-Whether vanaspati is oil. 
The appellants were convicted and sentenced for two offences under Sec-
tion 22A of the Minimum Wages Act for contravention of Rules . 26(1), 26(2), 
26(5) and 26B of the Gujarat Minimum Wages Rules, 1961. 
The sentence 
·imposed in consequence was a fine of Rs. 50 on each of the appellants in 
each case. The trial court as well as the High Court took into consideration 
various provisions of the Act and came to the conclusion that the appellant's 
mill fell within the ambit of Item 5 of Part-I of Schedule to the said Act. 
Dismissing the appeal by special leave, the Court 
HELD : (!) The appellant's Company would be an oil mill within the 
meaning of Item 5 of Part-I of the Schedule to the Act. 
[448 CJ 
(2) The various provisions of the Minimum Wages Act make it clear : 
(i) For an employer to be covered by the Act three conditions must be 
fulfilled : 
[445 F) 
(a) he must be employing one or more employees in any schedufrd 
employment; [445 G} 
(h) minimum rates of wages for such scheduled employment must have 
been fixed under the Act; . and [445 G] 
(c) if a committee has been appointed by the Government u
0
nder Sec· 
tion 5 in respect of such scheduled employment it must consist 
of persons representing employers and employees in the scheduled 
employment who shall be equal in number. [445 HJ 
(ii) Employment in an oil mill is a scheduled employment. 
~446 A] 
In the instant case it cannot be said that these conditions are n.ot satisfied. 
[446 A] 
(3) Vanaspati is essentially an oil although it is a different kind of oil other 
than that oil (be it rapeseed oil, cotton-seed oil; ground-nut oil, soya-bean oil 
or any other oil) which forms its basic ingredient. 
Oil will remain oil if it 
retains its essential properties and merely because it has been subjected to 
certain processes would not convert it into a different substance. 
In other 
words, although certain additions have been made to and operations carried 
out on oil, it will still be classified as <;lil unless its essential characteristics have 
undergone a change so that it would be a misnomer to call it oil as understood 
in ordinary parlance. 
No doubt, the word 'oil' is not defined in the Act. 
Taking the dictionary meaning for interpreting the term 'oil mill', in this case 
jt is clear that hydrogenated vegetable oil falls within the said term. 
[441\ C-G] 
CHAMPAKLAL v. GUJARAT (Kasha[, J.) 
441 
The various processes, namely, 
neutralization, bleaching, 
deodbrisation, 
hardening and hydrogenation to which oil is subjected for being converted into 
vanaspati leave its basic characteristics untouched, that is, it remains a cooking 
medium with vegetable fat as its main ingredient. Neutralisation, bleaching and 
. deodorisation are merely refining processes so that the colour, the odbur and 
foreign substances are removed from it before it is hydrogenated and hardened 
and even the two processes last mentioned allow the oil to retain those charac-
teristics. 
Even ghee, for that matter, is nothing but a form of oil although 
it is obtained from animal fat, being a derivative from milk. Whether it lique-
fies in summer and solidifies in winter, nonetheless, ghee remains an oil and 
it makes no difference that it is called ghee in ordinary parlance. The word 
is merely .a different name for an oil which is not derived from vegetables. From 
that point of view the term 'vegetable ghee' is a contradiction in terms, ghee 
being essentially an animal· fat. 
The reason why it has come to be called 
vegetable ghee is that in its finished form it resembles ghee. in appearance 
and by viscosity and is also considered a -more respectable form of cooking 
medium when so called, thus catering to the psychological satisfaction of the 
consumer. 
Thus vanaspati must be regarded as an oil for the purpose of 
·Item 5 in Part-I of the Schedule to the Act in spite of the processes to which 
the oil forming its base has been subjected in order to convert it into the 
finished product. : [446 H, 447 A-D; F} 
Further, in the instant case : (1) there is a clear finding of fact which 
is no longer open to challenge, that the company 

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