FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA WORKERS' UNION versus FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

Citation: [1985] 3 S.C.R. 150 · Decided: 01-03-1985 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.A. DESAI · Disposal: Case Allowed

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Judgment (excerpt)

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B 
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D 
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G 
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FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA WORKERS' UNION 
v. 
FOOD CORPORATION OF INDIA AND OTHERS 
March 1, 1985 
[D.A. DESAI AND V. KHALID, JJ.] 
Ct>ntract Aabour Regulation and Abolition) Act. 1970 Section 2 (I) (a) read 
with section! 2 (I) (e) 1(4) (a), (b) and Proviso and I (5) (a) and (b) and the 
Explanation-Terms "apporopriate Government", clarified-Appropriate Govern· 
ment for the purposes of taking necessary steps under the Act of 1970 to redress 
the grievances of the contract labours working with the Food Corporation of 
India's e.Jtab/ishment situated in the States is the respective State Government 
under sub-section 2 of section 2 (a) and not rhe Central Guvernment-Canon 
of statutory construction explained-" Any industry carried on by or under the 
authority of the Central Government" which is in pari materia with Section 2 (a) 
(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, meaning of-N:.1ture of relief that can 
be qrt1nted. outlined. 
The Food Corporation of India has been entrusted with the duty of 
procuring foodgrains and its movement and distribution throughout the 
country. The Corporation employs for the discharge of this work three types 
of labourers ; (1) departmentalised labour who are its regular employees ; (2) 
direct paid labour ; and (3) Contract labour who are employed by the 
Corporation through the intermediary of contractors. 
I he petitioners who 
come ·under the third category have been trying to pursuade the corporation 
for progressive departmentalisation of its labour or in the alternative extending 
to the11.1 the benefits of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 
1970. By this writ petition they prayed for a writ of mandamus either to the 
Union Govern.ment or to the concerned State Governments, to 
extend 
to them' the benefits of the Act, for a direction to the corporation to pay 
tkem th~ same wages as are paid to the departmentalised labour and other 
'rclicf5. TAc Corporation pleaded that the approoriate Government for the 
purpose of the claims of the petitioners working in its establishment in a State 
is the concerned State Government and not the Central Government, which 
stand~was adopted by ihe 15th Re~pondent State of Madhya Pradesh and the 
21st Respondent State of Punjab through their respective affidavits and there-
fore disowned its responsibility. The other States did not file their counter 
at all. 
Allowing the petition, the Court, 
y 
_) 
). .. 
WORKERS; UNION v. FOOD CORPORATION 
151 
HELD : 
Section 10 of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Aboli-
A 
tion) Act, 1970 enables the appropriate Government by a suitable notification 
after making a study of the conditions laid down therein to prOhibit employ-
ment of contract labour in any 'process, operation, or other ·work' in aay 
establishment. The petitioners1 complaint that despite several disputes aad 
respresentations made to all the State Governments as well as the Union of 
India, nothing has so fare been done to give the benefit of Section 10 to the 
contract labour· in the Corporation by playing hide and seek, one pOinting to 
B 
the other as the appropriate Government for redressal of their grievances is 
justified. [1550-E] 
2.1 
On the interpretation of the relevant sections namely, 1 (4), 1 (5), 
2 (1) (a) and 2 (a) (e) of the Contract Labour Act, 1970 read with section 
2 (a) (1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 "appropriate Government" for 
the purpose of this case pertaining to the region~l offices and warehouses of the e C 
Food Corporation of Tndia in the fespective States i'i the State Government and 
not the Central Government. [161D] 
· 
2.2 Section 1(4) deals with the application of the Act to ·establishments 
and contractors answering to the description given therein and certainly the 
establishment of the Food Corporation and the contrdctors it employs come 
D 
within the ambit of tne provisions of this Act. [156F] 
2.3 Various warehouses, godowns and places alike set up .by the 
Corporation would be establishments where the trade of the corporatiOn is 
being carried on and within the m~aning of the term "establishment" in section 
2 (I) (e) (ii).of the Act. [158E] 
2.4 It is a well-established canon of statutory construction that legis-
lature is known to avoid tautology and redundancy. If Food Corporation of 
India was an industry carried on by or under the authority of the Central 
Government, it would have been comprehended in the first part of sub-secti

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