Other States - Rajasthan   

Court upholds validity of notification

Special Correspondent

"Below ground" work status for open cast mine labourers for enhancing their wages

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has upheld the validity of a notification issued by the Central Government in 1994 incorporating labourers working in open cast mines at the depth of six metres into the definition of those employed "below ground" for the purpose of enhancing their minimum wages.

The Union Labour Ministry had issued the impugned notification under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, for granting higher rates of wages to labourers working in a shaft being sunk, engaged in an excavation below ground and employed in an open cast working in which the depth of the excavation "measured from its highest to its lowest point exceeds six metres".

A mining firm of Ramganj Mandi in Kota district of Rajasthan - Associated Stone Industries - had challenged the notification through a writ petition while contending that treating the workers of open cast mines and underground mines as equal and merger of the two categories of labourers violated Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution, as all rules and regulations differentiated between the working conditions of the two categories.

Sagarmal Mehta, former Advocate General of the State, appearing for the petitioner pointed out that the inclusion of open cast mining workers sought to be made by the notification of July 12, 1994, was impermissible in the background of what had been stated in the Mines Act, the Mines Rules and other pieces of legislation dealing with mining activities.

"If the standard of six metres of depth in an open cast mine is accepted for granting higher rate of wages, the next step will be to increase the rate of wages for every successive six metres or even a fraction thereof, making the matter complicated,'' said Mr. Mehta. Counsel said such a distinction was not possible in a factory where machines were working at different levels or elevations.

However, the Central Government's standing counsel, Bhanwar Bagri, contesting Mr. Mehta's arguments said the notification had been issued as a welfare measure for mine labourers working at depth as they were exposed to greater risk to life and had to do relatively more difficult work. "A dispute about infringement of Article 14 of the Constitution can be raised only when a notification is proved to be against public interest or labour interest," he said.

Justice Shiv Kumar Sharma of the High Court's Jaipur Bench in his verdict delivered this past week observed that legal issues in this case were "intertwined with those involving determination of policy and [a] plethora of technical issues".

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Court upholds validity of notification

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