High Court Bar Association, Allahabad High Court vs Deputy Labour Commissioner and Others

M. Katju, J.—Heard Sri Mohit Kumar learneed Counsel for the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad. None appears for respondents although the name of Sri A.S. Diwakar, has been shown in the cause list.

This special appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment dated 7.5.2003 of the learned Single Judge which dismissed the writ petition of the High Court Bar Association challenging the order under the Payment of Gratuity Act.

In our opinion this special appeal deserves to be allowed on the short point that the Payment of Gratuity Act, does not apply to the High Court Bar Association at all :

"Section 1(3) of the Payment of Gratuity Act states : (3) It shall apply to-

(a) every factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port and railway company;

(b) every shop or establishment within the meaning of any law for the time being in force in relation to shops and establishments in a State, in which ten or more persons are employed or were employed, on any day of the preceding twelve months;

(c) such other establishments or class of establishments, in which ten or more employees are employed or were employed, on any day of the preceding twelve months, as the Central Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf."

An establishment comes within the purview of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 only if it belongs to one of the three categories specified in Section 1(3) of the Act.

The High Court Bar Association is surely not a factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port or railway company. Hence clause (a) of Section 1(3) of the Act does not apply to it.

As regard clause (b) of Section 1(3) this too will not apply because this relates to a shop or establishment within the meaning of any law for the time being in force in relation to shops and establishments in the State. In U.P. this law is the U.P. Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhisthan Adhiniyam, 1962. The High Court Bar Association, Allahabad is not a shop or establishment which comes within the purview of the aforesaid U.P. Act, 1962.

As regards clause (c) of Section 1(3) of the Payment of Gratuity Act this will apply only when there is Central Government notification in this behalf. We have not been shown any Central Government notification under clause (c) of the Section 1(3) which brings the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad within the purview of the Payment of Gratuity Act. Hence, it is clear that the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 does not apply to the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad at all. Hence, the order dated 15.3.91 challenged before the learned Single Judge and any order passed under the Payment of Gratuity Act, so far as it relates to the High Court Bar Association, Allahabad was wholly without jurisdiction.

Hence, this special appeal is allowed and the impugned judgment dated 7.5.2003 is set aside. The order dated 15.3.91 is quashed.