LexSTATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH versus NARAYANA VELUR BEEDI MANUFACTURING FACTORY & OTHERS
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A B c 0 E F G H 155 STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH v. NARAYANA VELUR BEEDI MANUFACTURING FACTORY & OTHERS March 26, 1973 [A. N. GROVER, K. K. MATHEW AND A. K. MUKHERJEA, JJ.1 Minimum Wages Act, 1948, s. 9-'Independent persons'-[/ include Government officials. The appellant-Government passed an order revising ~inimum wages in the Bidi industry. It was based on the recommendat10n of a Com- mittee of six members consisting df persons representing employers and employees "!'d the Chief I~~r and Deputy Chief Insp~tor of Fac- tories. Section 9 of the Mm1mum Wages Act, 1948, rcqu1res that the Committee shall consist of an equal number of repiesentati\'es of the employer and the employees and of Independent persons not exceeding one third of its total number. On the question whether the two Govern- ment officials could be regarded as independent persons, HELD : The mere fact that they happened to be Government officials or Government servants will not divest them of the character of indepen- dent persons. [76Jq The language <if s. 9 does not contain any indication that persons in tile employment of the Government would be excluded from the category of 'independent persons'. These words have essentially been employed in contradistinction to representatives of employers and employees. In other words, apart from the representatives of employers and employees there should be persons who should be independent of them. [760G-HJ Further, the presence of high government officials, who may have actual working knowledge about the problems · of employers and em- ployees can afford a good deal of guidance and assistance in formulating the advice which is to be tendered. It may be that in .certain circumstances .such persons may cease to have an independent character. iC!he quettion of fixation of mininium wages in an employment in which the appropiblte Government is directly interested, ari.es. . It would therefore depend upon the facts <if each particular case whether the penons who have been appointed could be regarded as independent or not. It is not correct to say that a Government official will have a bias onhat he may favour the policy which the appropriate Government may be inclined to adopt, be- cause, when he is a member of an Advisory "Committee he is expected-to give an impartial and independent advice and not merely carry out what ~e Government may be incHncd to do. Government . officials are respon- sible persons and are capable of takin~. a detached and impartial vie\\', [760H; 761A-E) Jaswan.t Ra! Beri & Others v. State of Punjab & another, A.LR. 1958 Pun). 425, D. M. S, Rao & Others v. The State of Kera/a & A"'?ther, A.LR. 1963 Kerala 115, Bengal Motion Pictures Employees Unwn, C<icutta v. Kohinoor .Pictures Private Ltd. & Ors. A.LR. 1964 Cal. 619, .Ramkrlshna Ramnath Nagpu' & Another v. The State of Maharasht;a & Anorber, A.LR. 1964 Born. 51, Chandrabhave Boarding and Lodging & Others v. Stcte of Mysore, A.LR. 1968 Mys. 156 and P. Gangadharan Pillai v. State of Kera/a & Others A.LR. 1968 Kerala 218, approved. ' 756 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1973] 3 S.C.R. Norotamdas Harjivandas v. P. V. Gourikar, Inspector, Minimum Wages, A.LR. 1961 M.B. 182 a;nd Kohinoor Pictures (Private) Ltd. v. State of West Bengal & Others, (1961] 2 L.L.J. 741, over ruled. CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeals Nos. 1659 to 1662 of 1967. Appeals by certificate from the judgment and order dated January 31, 1964 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court at Hyderabad in Writ Petition Nos. 337 /63, 746/62, 735/62 and 807 /62, respectively. P. Ram Reddy and A. V. V. Nair, for the appellant. M. C. Chagla, H. K. Puri and 'Niranjana Shah, for the res- pondents (in C. A. No. 1659) respondents 1 to 10, 12 to 14, 16 and 19 to 29 (in C.A. No. 1660), Respondent No. 1 (in C.A. No. 1661) and Respondents Nos. 1 to 5 (in C.A. No. 1662). The Judgment of the Court was delivered by GROVER, J .-The sole question which has to be decided in these appeals by certificate from a judgment of the Andhra Pra- desh High Court is the meaning of the word "independent" in s. 9 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, hereinafter called the "Act". The Act was enacted to provide for fixing the minimum rates of wages in certain employments. Section 2 gives the definition of various expressions. Clauses (e) (h) and (i) give the mean- ing of the words "employer", "wages'' and "employee" respectively. Section 3 provide
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