TMI Blog1958 (3) TMI 74X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ists invested money and combines controlling several newspapers all over the country also became the special feature of this development. The working journalists except for the comparatively large number that were found concentrated in the big metropolitan cities, were scattered all over the country and for the last ten years and more agitated that some means should be found by which those working in the newspaper industry were enabled to have their wages and salaries, their dearness allowance and other allowances, their retirement benefits, their rules of leave and conditions of service, enquired into by some impartial agency or authority, who would be empowered to fix just and reasonable terms and conditions of service for working journalists as a whole. Isolated attempts were made by the Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh Governments in this behalf. On June 18, 1947, the Government of Uttar Pradesh appointed a committee to enquire into the conditions of work of the employees of the newspaper industry in the Uttar Pradesh. On March 27, 1948, the Government of Central Provinces Berar also appointed an Inquiry Committee to examine and report on certain questions relating to t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ilable only 59 were returning profits and 68 showed losses. The industry taken as a whole had returned a profit of about 6 lakhs of rupees on a capital investment of about 7 crores, or less than 1 per cent. per annum. It found that proof-readers as a class could not be regarded as working journalists, for there were proof-readers even in presses doing job work. It came to the conclusion that if a person had been employed as a proof-reader only for the purpose of making him a more efficient sub-editor, then it was obvious that even while he was a proof-reader, he should be regarded as a working journalist but in all other instances, he would not be counted as a journalist but as a member of the press staff coming within the purview of the Factories Act. The question of the emoluments payable to working journalists, was discussed by it in paragraphs 538 and 539 of its report : 538 :- SCALES TO BE SETTLED BY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING OR ADJUDICATION :- It has not been possible for us to examine in detail the adequacy of the scales of pay and the emoluments received by the working journalist having regard to the cost of living in the various centers where these papers are publ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... would be impossible for him to perform his duties efficiently. His wage and his conditions of service should therefore be such as to attract talent. He has to keep himself abreast of the development in different fields of human activity-even in such technical subjects as law, and medicine. This must involve constant study, contact with personalities and a general acquaintance with world's problems. It considered therefore that there should be a certain minimum wage paid to a journalist. The possible impact of such a minimum wage was also considered by it and it was considered not unlikely that the fixation of such a minimum wage may make it impossible for small papers to continue to exist as such but it thought that if a newspaper could not afford to pay the minimum wage to the employee which would enable him to live decently and with dignity, that newspaper had no business to exist. It recommended division of localities for taking into account the differential cost of living in different parts of India, and determining what should be the reasonable minimum wage in respect of each area. It endorsed the concept of a minimum wage which has been adopted by the Bank Award :- ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... um wages; (iv) Sunday rest; (v) leave, and (vi) provident fund and gratuity. Almost immediately after the Report of the Press Commission, Parliament passed the Working Journalists (Industrial Disputes) Act, 1955 (I of 1955) which received the assent of the President on March 12, 1955. It was an Act to apply the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, to working journalists. Working Journalist was defined in s. 2(b) of the Act to mean a person whose principal avocation is that of a journalist and who is employed as such in, or in relation to, any establishment for the production or publication of a newspaper or in, or in relation to, any news agency or syndicate supplying material for publication in any newspaper, and includes an editor, a leader-writer, news-editor, sub-editor, feature writer, copy-taster, reporter, correspondent, cartoonist, news-photographer and proof reader but does not include any such person who : (i) is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity, or (ii) being employed in a supervisory capacity, exercises, either by the nature of the duties attached to the office or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d) to mean an establishment under the control of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, for the production or publication of one or more newspapers or for conducting any news agency or syndicate . The definition of working journalist was almost in the same terms as that in the Working Journalists (Industrial Disputes) Act, 1955, and included a proof reader. All words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, were under s. 2(g) to have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act. Section 3 applied the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as it was in force for the time being, to working journalists as they applied to, or in relation to workmen within the meaning of that Act subject to the modification that s. 25(F) of that Act in its application to working journalists in regard to the period of notice in relation to the retrenchment of a workman was to be construed as substituting six months in the case of the retrenchment of an editor and three months, in the case of any other working journalist. The period which lapsed between the publication of the report and the enactment of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion so published was to come into operation with effect from such date as may be specified, and where no date was so specified on the date of its publication. Section 11 prescribed the powers and procedure of the Board and stated that subject to any rules of procedure which might be prescribed the Board may, for the purpose of fixing rates of wages, exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure as an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial disputes Act, 1947, exercised or followed for the purpose of adjudicating an industrial dispute referred to it. The decision of the Board under s. 12 was declared to be binding on all employers in relation to newspaper establishments and every working journalist was entitled to be paid wages at a rate which was to be in no case less than the rate of wages fixed by the Board. Sections 14 and 15 applied the provisions of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, as it was in force for the time being and also the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952, as it was in force for the time being, to every newspaper establishment in which twenty or more persons were employed. Section 17 provided for th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for fixing rates of wages in respect of working journalists in accordance with the provisions of the Act, consisting of equal representatives of employers in relation to newspaper establishments and working journalists and appointed Shri H. V. Divatia, Retired Judge of the High Court of Judicature, Bombay, as the Chairman of the Board. The three members of the Board who were nominated to represent employers in relation to newspaper establishments were (1) Shri G. Narasimhan, Manager, The Hindu, Madras and President, Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society; (2) Shri A. R. Bhat, M.L.C., who had been a member of the Press Commission and was the President of the Indian Language Newspapers Association, as also the Chairman of the Minimum Wages Inquiry Committee for the Printing Industry in Bombay and, (3) Shri K. P. Kesava Menon, Editor, Mathrubhumi, Calicut. The other three members of the Board who were nominated to represent working journalists were : (1) Shri G. Venkataraman, M.P., (2) Shri C. Raghavan, Secretary-General, Indian Federation of Working Journalists, and (3) Shri G. N. Acharya, Assistant Editor, Bombay Chronicle. Shri H. V. Divatia, the Chairman of the Board, had wide a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act. In Part A of the questionnaire under the heading Cost of Living , cost of living index for the respective centers were called for and a special question was addressed whether the basic minimum wage, dearness allowance and metropolitan allowance in the table attached to paragraph 546 of the Press commission was acceptable to the party questioned and, if not, what variations would the party suggest and why. Comparable employment suggested included (a) Higher secondary school teachers; (b) College and university teachers; (c) Journalists employed as publicity and public relations officers in the information departments of the Central and State Governments; (d) Journalistic employees of the news service division of All India Radio and (e) Research personnel of the economic and social research departments of Central Government ministries like finance, labour and commerce. Under the heading Special Circumstances , the only question addressed was question No. 7 : Are there in your region any special conditions in respect of the newspaper industry which affect the fixing of rates of wages of working journalists ? If so, speci ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ofits in relation to circulation of the several newspapers which had sent in the replies to the questionnaire. Further meetings of the Board were held on August 17, and August 20, 1956, in Bombay. The Chairman informed the members that response from journals, organisations, etc., to whom questionnaire was sent was unsatisfactory and it was decided to issue a Press Note requesting the papers and journals to send their replies, particularly to Part B of the questionnaire as soon as possible inviting their attention to the fact that the Board had powers of an Industrial Tribunal under the Act, and if newspapers failed to send their replies, the Board would be compelled to take further steps in the matter. It was decided that for purposes of taking oral evidence, the country be divided into 5 zones, namely, Trivandrum, Madras, Delhi, Calcutta and Bombay and the Secretary was asked to summon witnesses to the nearest and convenient center. It was further decided that one hour should normally be allotted to each newspaper, 3 hours for regional units and 2 hours for smaller units for oral evidence. The Board also discussed the question as to the number of persons who might ordinarily ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al settlement of the issue the parties should submit figures of scales based on both assumptions, namely, consolidated wages and basic scales with separate dearness allowance. Both sides agreed to submit concrete suggestions on the following day. At the Board's meeting on March 28, 1957, the representatives of the employers stated that the term rates of pay did not include scales of pay; therefore, the Board was not competent to fix scales of working journalists and they submitted a written statement signed by all of them to the chairman in support of their contention. The representatives of the working journalists argued that the Board was competent to fix scales of pay. The chairman adjourned the sitting of the Board to study this issue. A copy of the written statement submitted by the representatives of the employers was given to the representatives of the working journalists and they submitted a written reply the same afternoon contending that the Board was competent to fix scales of pay of various categories of working journalists. At its meeting on March 29, 1957, the Board discussed its own competency to fix scales of pay. The chairman expressed his opinion in writing, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r periodicals expressly provided for hereinafter, newspaper establishments should be classified on the basis of their gross revenue. For purposes of classification, revenue from all sources of a newspaper establishment, should be taken for ascertaining gross revenue. Classification of Newspaper Establishments : Dailies - Newspaper Establishments should be classified under the following five classes :- Class Gross Revenue A over ₹ 25 lakhs B over ₹ 12 1/2 to 25 lakhs C over ₹ 5 to 12 1/2 lakhs D over ₹ 2 1/2 to 5 lakhs E ₹ 2 1/2 lakhs and below 5. Classification of newspaper establishments should be based on the average gross revenue of the three-year period, 1952, 1953 and 1954. It shall be open to the parties to seek re-classification of the newspaper establishments on the basis of the average of every three years commencing from the year 1955. Groups, multiple units and chains should ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... No Scale III II 150 No Scale I D IV 100 100-5-165 (13 Yrs.) EB-7-200 - (5 Yrs.) III 115 115-7 1/2-205 - (12 Yrs.) EB-15-295 (6 Yrs.) II 200 200-20-400 (10 Yrs.) I C IV 100 100-5-165 (13 Yrs.) EB-7-200-(5 Yrs.) III 125 125-10-245 (12 Yrs.) EB-12 1/2-320 (6 Yrs.) I 225 225-20-385 (8 Yrs.) EB-30-445 (2 Yrs.) I 350 350-25-550 (8 Yrs.) -40-630 (2 Yrs.) B ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ty decision. The chairman and the representatives of the working journalists voted for and the representatives of the employers voted against). The Government of India should constitute a Wage Board under the Act, to review the effect of the decisions of the Board on the newspaper establishments and the working journalists, after the expiry of 3 years but not later than 5 years from the date of the publication of the decisions of the Board. These decisions were recorded on April 30, 1957, but the representatives of the employers thought fit to append a minute of dissent and the chairman also put on record a note on the same day explaining the reasons for the decisions thus recorded. These documents are of vital importance in the determination of the issues before us. In the minute of dissent recorded by the representatives of the employers they started with an expression of regret that the conditions in the newspaper industry did not permit them to accept the majority view. They expressed their opinion that the fixation of rates of wages should be governed by the following criteria : (i) normal needs of a worker; (ii) capacity of the industry to pay; (iii) nature ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fixed on an All-India basis would perforce have to be low if the newspapers in language of regions with a low purchasing power such as Kerala and Orissa were not to be handicapped. It would therefore be fair both to the industry and employees if wages were fixed region-wise. (f) The proposals, which the majority had made, clearly showed that, according to it the dominating principle of wage fixation was the need of the worker as conceived by them, irrespective of its effect on the industry. The Board had not before it sufficient data needed for the proper assessment of the paying capacity of the industry. The profit and loss statements of the daily newspaper establishments for the year 1954-55 as submitted to the Board revealed that while 43 of them had shown profits 40 had incurred losses. The condition of the newspaper industry in the country as a whole could not be considered satisfactory. The proposals embodied in the decision made by the majority were therefore unduly high. They would immediately throw a huge burden on many papers, a burden which would progressively grow for some years, and would be still bigger when its impact takes place on the wages of employees of its ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers and thereby became majority decisions. At the outset the chairman explained that most of the recommendations of the Press commission were intended for the betterment of the economic condition of small and medium newspapers, such as price page schedule, telescopic rates for Government advertisements and their fair distribution among newspapers, statutory restrictions on malpractices so as to eliminate cutthroat competition and fixation of news agency tariffs which still remained to be implemented and there had been no stability in the prices of newsprint which constituted a considerable proportion of the expenditure of a newspaper. These circumstances had necessitated the fixing of a minimum wage lower than that recommended by the Press Commission. As regards fixation of the rates of wages, the chairman observed : In fixing the rates of wages, we have based them on the condition of the newspaper industry as a whole and not on the effect which they will produce on a particular newspaper. We can only proceed on the average gross income of a newspaper falling under the same class and not on the lowest unit in that class. Otherwise, there will be no improvement in any unit o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt was given by the chairman as under :- One of the difficult tasks before us was to fix the wages of journalists working in newspapers which have recently come to exist in our country. All the accounts of the constituent units in the same group or chain are merged together with the result that the losses of the weaker units are borne from the high income of prosperous units. There is considerable disparity in the wages of journalists doing the same kind of work in the various constituent units situated in different centers. The Press Commission has strongly criticised the methods of such chains and groups and their adverse effects on the employees. We have decided to group all the constituent units of the same group or chain in the same class in which they would fall on the basis of the total gross income of the entire establishment. We are conscious that as a result of this decision, some of the journalists in the weak units of the same group or chain may get much more than those working in its highest income units. If however, our principle is good and scientific, the inevitable result of its application should be judged from the stand-point of Indian Journalism as a whole ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ation of the Board's decision, i.e., not later than June 10, 1957. Writ Petition No. 91 of 1957 was thereupon filed on June 13, 1957, by the Express Newspapers (Private) Ltd., against the Union of India others and this petition was followed up by similar petitions field on August 9, 1957, by the Press Trust of India Ltd., the Indian National Press (Bombay) Private Ltd., and the Saurashtra Trust, being Petitions Nos. 99, 100, and 101 of 1957 respectively. The Hindustan Times Ltd., New Delhi filed on August 23, 1957, a similar petition, being Petition No. 103 of 1957, and three more petitions, being Petitions Nos. 116, 117 and 118 of 1957, were filed by the Loksatta Karyalaya, Baroda, Sandesh Ltd., Ahmedabad and Jan Satta Karyalaya, Ahmedabad, respectively, on September 18, 1957. The Express Newspapers (Private) Ltd., the petitioners in Petition No. 91 of 1957, otherwise termed the Express Group , are the biggest chain in the newspaper world in India. They publish (i) Indian Express, an English Daily, from Madras, Bombay, Delhi and Madurai, (ii) Sunday Standard, an English Weekly, from three centers - Madras, Bombay and Delhi, (iii) Dinmani, a Tamil Daily from Madras and Ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... working journalists. There would also be an additional financial burden of ₹ 60,000 every year by reason of the recurring increments in the monthly salaries of the working journalists employed by them. If the benefits of the Wage Board decision were extended to the other members of the staff who are not working journalists within the definition of that term but who have also made similar demands on them, a further annual burden would be imposed on the petitioners which is estimated at ₹ 3,90,000. If perchance the petitioners not being able to run their concerned except at a loss intended to close down the same, the amount which they would have to pay to the working journalists under the provisions of the Act and the decision of the Wage Board would be ₹ 23,68,500 as against the old scale liability of ₹ 11,62,500 and the other members of the staff who do not fall within the category of working journalists would have to be paid a further sum of ₹ 15,50,000. The total liability of the petitioners in such an event would amount to ₹ 39,18,000 as against the old liability of ₹ 27,12,500. The Indian National Press (Bombay) Private Ltd., otherwi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y, (ii) Janmabhoomi and Pravasi, a Gujrati Weekly from Bombay, (iii) Lokmanya, a Marathi Daily from Bombay, (iv) Vyapar, a Gujrati Weekly commercial paper from Bombay, (v) Fulchhab, a Gujrati Daily from Rajkot, (vi) Pratap, a Gujrati Daily from Surat, (vii) Cuttccha Mitra, a Gujrati Daily from Bhuj (Cutch) and, (vii) Nav Bharat, a Gujrati Daily from Baroda. They employ 445 employees out of whom 60 are working journalists and 12, proof readers and the rest belong to the other members of the staff. The effect of the Wage Board decision on them would be to impose on them a burden of ₹ 1,59,528 by reason of the retrospective operation of the decision and an annual increase in the wage bill of ₹ 1,59,528 for the first year and an annual recurring increase of ₹ 22,000. The operation of sections 6 and 7 of the Act in regard to reduced hours of work and provision for increased leave would impose an additional burden of ₹ 42,000 per year. The liability for past gratuity would be ₹ 93,376 and the recurring annual increase in gratuity would be ₹ 11,000. If similar benefits were also given to the other members of the staff who were not working journalists th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... about one-third of the total wage bill as against 602 other members of the staff whose wage bill constitutes the remaining two-thirds. If the decision of the Wage Board is given effect to the petitioners would be subjected to the following additional liabilities in respect of working journalists alone : (i) Increase in the annual wage bill ₹ 2,16,000 (Approx.) (ii) Arrears of payments from May 2, 1956, to April 30, 1957, ₹ 1,89,000 (iii) Past liability in respect of gratuity as on March 31, 1957, ₹ 2,65,000 (iv) Recurring annual liability of gratuity ₹ 28,000. The total liability thus comes to ₹ 6,98,000. The above figures do not include increased liability on account of the petitioners' contribution towards provident fund, leave rules and payment to part-time correspondents. There would also be a further recurring increase in the wage bill by reason of the increments which would have to be given to the various categories of working journalists on the scales of wages prescribed by the Wage Board. If other members of the staff (who are not working journalists ) were to be considered for increase in their emoluments, etc., there will be a further bu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... den will be ₹ 1,89,816. The total costs of closing down if such an eventuality were contemplated would be ₹ 1,08,997 for the working journalists only as against a liability of ₹ 22,755 on the old basis. The other members of the staff would have to be paid ₹ 1,46,351 and the total cost of closing down the whole concern would thus come to ₹ 2,55,349 under the new dispensation as against ₹ 1,69,106 as of old. The Jansatta Karyalaya, Ahmedabad, petitioners in Petition No. 118 of 1957 bring out (i) Jansatta, a Gujarati Daily and (ii) Chandni a Gujarati Monthly from Ahmedabad. They employ 15 working journalists, 6 proof-readers and 87 other members of the staff thus making a total number of 108 employees. The increase in the wage-bill of the working journalists would come to ₹ 29,808. The liability for past gratuity would be ₹ 6,624 and the recurring annual gratuity would be ₹ 2,303 and the annual recurring increase in wages would come to ₹ 2,280. The financial burden in case of proof-readers would be ₹ 6,480 per year as per the decision of the Wage Board. If similar benefits had to be given to the other members of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o field petitions for special leave to appeal against the decision of the Wage Board being Petitions Nos. 323, 346, 347, 348 and 359 of 1957 respectively and this Court granted the special leave in all these petitions under Art. 136 of the Constitution subject to the question of the maintainability of the appeals being open to be urged at the hearing. Civil Appeals arising out of these special leave petitions were ordered to be placed along with the Writ Petitions aforesaid for hearing and final disposal and Civil Appeals Nos. 699 of 1957, 700 of 1957, 701 of 1957, 702 of 1957 and 703 of 1957 arising therefrom thus came up for hearing and final disposal before us along with the Writ Petitions under Art. 32 mentioned above. We took up the hearing of the Writ Petitions first as they were more comprehensive in scope than the Civil Appeals filed by the respective parties and heard counsel at considerable length on the questions arising for our determination therein. Before we discuss the vires of the impugned Act and the decision of the Wage Board, it will be appropriate at this juncture to clear the ground by considering the principles of wage fixation and the machinery employed fo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssioner of the Bureau of Labour Statistics analysed the budgets with reference to three concepts, viz., (i) the pauper and poverty level, (ii) the minimum of subsistence level, and, (iii) the minimum of health and comfort level, and adopted the last for the determination of the living wage. The Royal Commission on the Basic Wage for the Commonwealth of Australia approved of this course and proceeded through norms and budget enquiries to ascertain what the minimum of health and comfort level should be. The commission quoted with approval the description of the minimum of health and comfort level in the following terms : This represents a slightly higher level than that of subsistence, providing not only for the material needs of food, shelter, and body covering, but also for certain comforts, such as clothing sufficient for bodily comfort, and to maintain the wearer's instinct of self-respect and decency, some insurance against the more important misfortunes-death, disability and fire-good education for the children, some amusement, and some expenditure for self-development. Writing practically in the same language, the United Provinces Labour Enquiry Committee ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ll endeavour to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or other wise, work, as living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities..... This is the ideal to which our social welfare State has to approximate in an attempt to ameliorate the living conditions of the workers. The concept of the minimum wage : The International Convention of 1928 prescribes the setting up of minimum wage-fixing machinery in industries in which no arrangements exist for the effective regulation of wages by collective agreement or otherwise and wages are exceptionally low .... As a rule, though the living wage is the target, it has to be tempered, even in advanced countries, by other considerations, particularly the general level of wages in other industries and the capacity of industry to pay. This view has been accepted by the Bombay Textile Labour Inquiry Committee which says that the living wage basis affords an absolute external standard for the determination of the minimum and that where a living wage criterion has b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The former is a wage which would be sufficient to cover the bare physical needs of a worker and his family, that is, a rate which has got to be paid to the worker irrespective of the capacity of the industry to pay. If an industry is unable to pay to its workmen at least a bare minimum wage it has no right to exist. As was observed by us in Messrs. Crown Aluminium Works v. Their Workmen ([1958] S.C.R. 651) : It is quite likely that in under-developed countries, where unemployment prevails on a very large scale, unorganised labour may be available on starvation wages, but the employment of labour on starvation wages cannot be encouraged or favoured in a modern democratic welfare state. If an employer cannot maintain his enterprise without cutting down the wages of his employees below even a bare subsistence or minimum wage, he would have no right to conduct his enterprise on such terms. The statutory minimum wage however is the minimum which is prescribed by the statute and it may be higher than the bare subsistence or minimum wage, providing for some measure of education, medical requirements and amenities, as contemplated above. (Cf. also the connotation of minimum ra ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... evel, the lowest limit or the floor below which no workers shall be paid... A fair wage is settled above the minimum wage and goes through the process of approximating towards a living wage. While the lower limit of the fair wage must obviously be the minimum wage, the upper limit is equally set by what may broadly be called the capacity of industry to pay. This will depend not only on the present economic position of the industry but on its future prospects. Between these two limits the actual wages will depend on a consideration of the following factors and in the light of the comments given below : (i) the productivity of labour; (ii) the prevailing rates of wages in the same or similar occupations in the same or neighbouring localities; (iii) the level of the national income and its distribution; and (iv) the place of the industry in the economy of the country. (Report of the Committee on Fair Wages pp. 4, 9-11, paras, II-15). It will be noticed that the fair wage is thus a mean between the living wage and the minimum wage and even the minimum wage contemplated above is something more than the bare minimum or subsistence wage which would be s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... definition of wages is to be found in the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, also. They would therefore include all payments made from time to time to a workman during the course of his employment as such and not merely the starting amount of wages at the beginning of his employment. The dictionary meaning of the term in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is also the same, viz., Amount paid periodically, especially by the day or week or month, for time during which workman or servant is at employer's disposal . The use of the word rate in the expression rates of wages has not the effect of limiting the connotation of the term. Rate is described in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as a statement of numeral proportion prevailing or to prevail between two sets of things either or both of which may be unspecified, amount, etc., mentioned in one case for application to all similar ones, standard or way of reckoning (measure of) value, etc. In chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary its meaning is given as : estimated amount or value (Shakespeare), and also amount determined according to a rule or basis; a standard; a class or rank; manner or mode . Rates of wages therefore mea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, the provisions in regard to the statutory minimum wages in Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania prescribe scales of wages which are graduated according to age and experience. The capacity of the industry to pay being thus one of the essential ingredients in the fixation of wages, it is relevant to consider the different methods of measuring such capacity. The capacity of the industry to pay : The capacity of industry to pay can mean one of three things, viz. : (i) the capacity of a particular unit (marginal, representative or average) to pay, (ii) the capacity of a particular industry as a whole to pay or (iii) the capacity of all industries in the country to pay. Ideas on this subject have varied from country to country. In New Zealand and Australia the capacity to pay is calculated with reference to all industries in the country and no special concessions are shown to depressed industries. In Australia the Arbitration Court considered that in view of the absence of clear means of measuring the general wage-paying capacity of total industry, the actual wage upon which well-situated labourers were at the time maintaining the average family unit cou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he industry to pay class-wise. As regards the measure of the capacity again there are two points of view in regard to the same : One view is that the wage-fixing machinery should, in determining the capacity of industry to pay, have regard to (i) a fair return on capital and remuneration to management; and (ii) a fair allocation to reserves and depreciation so as to keep the industry in a healthy condition. The other view is that the fair wage must be paid at any cost and that industry must go on paying such wage as long as it does not encroach on capital to pay that wage................... ................................................................ The objective is not merely to determine wages which are fair in the abstract, but to see that employment at existing levels is not only maintained but, if possible, increased. From this point of view, it will be clear that the level of wages should enable the industry to maintain production with efficiency. The capacity of industry to pay should, therefore, be assessed in the light of this very important consideration. The wages board should also be charged with the duty of seeing that fair wages s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... This would involve an investigation into the elasticity of supply of capital and organising ability in that particular trade, and thus an inquiry into the rate of profits in other industries, the ease with which transferences might be made, the possibility of similar wage regulation extending to other trades, and the probability of the export of capital and organising ability etc. The principles which emerge from the above discussion are : (1) that in the fixation of rates of wages which include within its compass the fixation of scales of wages also, the capacity of the industry to pay is one of the essential circumstances to be taken into consideration except in cases of bare subsistence or minimum wage where the employer is bound to pay the same irrespective of such capacity; (2) that the capacity of the industry to pay is to be considered on an industry-cum-region basis after taking a fair cross section of the industry; and (3) that the proper measure for gauging the capacity of the industry to pay should take into account the elasticity of demand for the product, the possibility of tightening up the organisation so that the industry could pay higher wages without ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t will contain an equal number of representatives of employers and workers, together with an impartial chairman, and in some cases members of the public as well. Of this type are the British Trade Boards; the South Australian, Victorian and Tasmanian Wages Boards; and the Advisory or Wages Boards set up by many of the Central Commissioners in the United States and Canada. ( Wages The State by E.M. Burns at p. 187). The following is a brief description of the composition and working of wages boards in the United Kingdom : In the United Kingdom where trade boards, and not general boards, have been set up, the Minister of Labour appoints a board if he is satisfied that no adequate machinery exists in a particular trade or industry for effectively regulation the wages and that it is necessary to provide such machinery. The trade board is a fairly large body consisting of an equal number of representatives of employers and workers with a few independent members including the chairman. Although appointments are made by the Minister, the representatives of employers and workers are appointed on the recommendation of the associations concerned. The trade board publishes a noti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nquiries, to call for records, to summon witnesses and to make recommendations regarding minimum wages. Some of the American laws lay down a time-limit for the submission of proposals. The administrative authority may accept or reject a report and refer it back for reconsideration, or form a new board for considering the matter afresh. Some of the laws provide that if the report is not accepted, the matter must be submitted again to the same wages board or a new wages board. (Report of the Committee on Fair Wages, p. 26, para. 50). The whole procedure for the determination of wages in the United States of America is described in two decisions of the Supreme Court : (i) Interstate Commerce Com. v. Louisville M.R. ([1912] 227 U.S. 88; 57 L.Ed. 431) and (ii) Opp. Cotton Mills Inc. v. Administration. ([1940] 312 U.S. 126; 85 L.Ed. 624) The Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938 in the U.S.A. provides for convening by the Administrator of industry committees for each such industry which from time to time recommend the minimum rate or rates of wages to be paid by the employers. The committee recommends to the administrator the highest minimum wage rates for the industry which it dete ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g wages in a number of important industries. The first enactment specifically to regulate wages in this country is the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. This Act is limited in its operation to the so-called sweated industries in which labour is practically unorganised and working conditions are far worse than in organised industry. Under that Act the appropriate Government has either to appoint a Committee to hold enquiries and to advise it in regard to the fixation of minimum rates of wages, or, if it thinks that it has enough material on hand, to publish its proposals for the fixation of wages in the official gazette and to invite objections. The appropriate Government finally fixes the minimum rates of wages on receipt of the recommendations of the Committee or of objections from the public. There is no provision for any appeal. There is an advisory board in each province to co-ordinate the work of the various committees. There is also a Central Advisory Board to co-ordinate the work of provincial boards. Complaints of non-payment of the minimum rates of wages fixed by Government may be taken to claims authorities. Breaches of the Act are punishable by criminal courts. (Report of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n into the relevant conditions in the trade or part of trade concerned and consultation with the interests primarily and principally affected, that is to say, the employers and workers in the trade or part of trade, whose views on all matters relating to the fixing of the minimum rate of wages should in any case be solicited and be given full and equal consideration. (2)(a) To secure greater authority for the rates that may be fixed, it should be the general policy that the employers and workers concerned through representatives equal in number or having equal voting strength, should jointly take a direct part in the deliberations and decisions of the wage-fixing body; in any case, where representation is accorded to one side, the other side should be represented on the same footing. The wage-fixing body should also include one or more independent persons whose votes can ensure effective decisions being reached in the event of the votes of the employers' and workers' representatives being equally divided. Such independent persons should, as far as possible, be selected in agreement with or after consultation with the employers' and workers' representatives on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ples for guidance. If a wage board is thus appointed it is necessary that the principles for its guidance in wage fixation should also be laid down by the appointing authority. The following passage from Minimum Wage - An International Survey - I.L.O. Geneva, 1939, summarises the position as it obtains in various countries : As will be clear from the analysis of legislation given earlier in this monograph, the fundamental principle of the Australian system, both in the Commonwealth and in the State sphere, is that of the living wage. Even in those cases where the law contains no reference to this principle its importance is in practice great... As a criterion of wage regulation the principle of the living wage is however no more than a vague and general indication of the purpose of the legislation. It leaves the broadest possible discretion in practice to the wage fixing tribunals. In the case of the Commonwealth laws indeed the Court is left completely free to determine the principles on which the basic or living wage is to be assessed. Under certain of the State laws specific, though limited, directions are given. Thus in Queensland there is a statutory definition of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct results. Procedure to be followed : The procedure to be followed by the wage boards is equally fluid. The wage councils and the central co-ordinating committees appointed under the Wages Council Act, 1945, as also the agricultural wages committees and the agricultural boards appointed under the Agricultural Wages Regulation Act, 1924, in the United Kingdom each of them subject, of course, to the regulations which might be made by the minister as to the meetings and procedure of these bodies including quorum, etc., is entitled to regulate its procedure in such manner as it thinks fit. The wage boards in Australia are called together informally by the chairman upon request of either party. No legal formalities or procedure need be complied with. Meetings of wage boards are held in the offices of the Department of Labour an officer of the department acting as secretary. (Kenneth F. Walker Industrial Relations Australia , p. 24). The wage boards thus constituted are left to regulate their procedure in such manner as they think fit and it is not necessary that any regulation should be made in regard to the procedure to be adopted by them in the conduct of the enquiry b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he appropriate Government that the latter takes action in the matter of fixation or revision of minimum rates of wages. Where, however, the appropriate Government proposes to fix the minimum rates of wages without reference to the various committees, or sub-committees, it publishes its proposals by notification in the Official Gazette for the information of persons likely to be affected thereby and fixes the minimum rates of wages only after considering the representations received by it from the interested parties. The wage boards appointed by the amended Bombay Industrial Relations Act, 1946, are subject to the appellate jurisdiction as well as supervisory jurisdiction of the industrial courts in the State and parties affected by their decisions are entitled to file appeals against the same in the industrial courts. If these safeguards are provided against the determinations of the wage boards, it will be really immaterial what procedure they adopt in the course of the proceedings before them. They would normally be expected to adopt all procedure necessary to gather sufficient data and collect sufficient materials to enable them to come to a proper conclusion in regard to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... suggested that the provisions of s. 9 were in the nature of a mass punishment of the inhabitants of the proclaimed district and he relied on the well-known passage from the judgment of the court in Banaker v. Evans, (16 Q.B. 162, 171) no proposition can be more clearly established than that a man cannot incur the loss of liberty or property for an offence by a judicial proceeding until he has had a fair opportunity of answering the charge against him, unless indeed the legislature has expressly or impliedly given an authority to act, without that necessary preliminary. This is laid down in [here a number of cases are mentioned] and many other cases, concluding with that of Capel v. Child ([1832] 2 C. J. 558) in which Bayley B. says he knows of no case in which you are to have a judicial proceeding, by which a man is to be deprived of any part of his property, without his having an opportunity of being heard. ... Their Lordships have already indicated that, in their view, the section does not contemplate any judicial proceeding, and thus a decision against the appellant does not infringe the principles stated in Bonaker v. Evans. (16 Q.B. 162, 171). The distinction betwee ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing of a rule for the future, and therefore, is an act legislative not judicial in kind,....... .................................................. That question depends not upon the character of the body, but upon the character of the proceedings. ............................................... The nature of the final act determines the nature of the previous enquiry. (See also Mitchell Coal Coke Co. v. Pennsylvania R. Co. ([1913] 230 U.S. 247; 57 L.Ed. 1472, 1482) and Louisville Nashville Railroad Company v. Green Garrett ([1913] 231 U.S. 198; 58 L.Ed. 229, 239)). A practical difficulty however arises in thus characterizing the functions as legislative or judicial because the functions performed by administrative agencies do not fall within water-tight compartments. Stason and Cooper in their treatises on Cases and other materials on Administrative Tribunals point out : One of the great difficulties of properly classifying a particular function of an administrative agency is that frequently - and, indeed; typically - a single function has three aspects. It is partly legislative, partly judicial and partly administrative. Consider, for exampl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at p. 88 : Both arbitration tribunals and courts of inquiry share with - one important difference - the tripartite structure of statutory wage councils; they are composed of equal numbers of representatives of employers and of workers under an independent chairman together with (in some cases) additional independent members. The essential difference between their structure and that of statutory wage authorities is that the representative members of the latter are chosen from within the industry concerned, whereas employers and workers on arbitration tribunal come from outside the industry whose disputes they have to resolve; if in any case technical knowledge of a particular industry is required, this is normally supplied by the help of assessors who take no part in the final award. This difference between the constitution of wage boards and that to arbitration tribunals clearly implies a corresponding distinction between the legislative function of the former and the judicial function of the latter. The wages board drafts laws for its own industry, whereas the arbitration court gives judgment on matters submitted by others. The choice of industrial arbitrators unconnected wi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ries and Shops Act, 1905, of Victoria Every determination of any Special Board shall unless and until so quashed... have the like force, validity and effect as if such determination had been enacted in this Act... thus investing the determination of the boards with the characteristics of a legislative act. Reference is made to the provisions of the Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938 in the United States of America, where the wages orders ultimately approved by the Administrator are subject to judicial review in the Circuit courts of Appeals or in the United States courts of appeals of the particular District and also subject to further review by the Supreme Court of the United States of America on certification. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, in our country also provides for the committees, sub-committees, advisory sub-committees, advisory boards and central advisory boards for fixing minimum rates of wages and the recommendations of these committees are forwarded to the appropriate Government who by notification in the official gazette fix minimum rates of wages in respect of each scheduled employment. The notification is a token of the approval by the appropriate Government ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... would be impossible to lay down any universal rule which would help in the determination of this question. Even if on the construction of the relevant provisions of the statute we come to the conclusion that the functions performed by a particular wage board are not of a legislative character, the question still remains whether the functions exercised by them are administrative in character or judicial or quasi-judicial in character, because only in the latter event would their decision be amenable to the writ jurisdiction or to the special leave jurisdiction above referred to. There is no doubt that these wage boards are not exercising purely judicial functions. They are not courts in the strict sense of the term and the functions which they perform may at best be quasi-judicial in character. The fact that they are administrative agencies set up for the purpose of fixation of wages do not necessarily invest their functions with an administrative character and in spite of their being administrative bodies they can nevertheless be exercising quasi-judicial functions if certain conditions are fulfilled. The position in law has been thus summarised in Halsbury's Laws of E ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n and secondly, whether it is under a duty to act judicially in the matter of arriving at its decision. The duty to act judicially may arise in widely differing circumstances which it would be impossible to attempt to define exhaustively. The question whether or not there is a duty to act judicially must be decided in each case in the light of the circumstances of the particular case and the construction of the particular statute, with the assistance of the general principles already set out. (Ibid, para. 115). The decision in R. v. Manchester Legal Aid Committee Ex parte R. A. Brand Co. Ltd. ([1952] 2 Q.B. 413, 428, 429, 430), lays down when an administrative body can be said to have a duty to act judicially : The true view, as it seems to us, is that the duty to act judicially may arise in widely different circumstances which it would be impossible, and, indeed, inadvisable, to attempt to define exhaustively. Where the decision is that of a court, then, unless, as in the case, for instance, of justices granting excise licences, it is acting in a purely ministerial capacity, it is clearly under a duty to act judicially. When, on the other hand, the decision is tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fixed and also that the scales of wages should be fixed on a gradation which is much less than or in any event, different from that suggested by the employees. The employees may say that certain factors which are material in the fixation of wages and which affect the employees should be considered as determinative of the rates of wages while the importance of these factors may be sought to be minimized by the employers who might put forward certain other factors affecting them, in their turn, as determinative of those rates, the importance of which may be sought to be minimized by the employees on the other hand. All these would create proposition and opposition on both sides with the result that a lis would arise between them. The determination of these points at issue would have to be arrived at by the wage boards and the wage boards could only do so after collecting proper data and materials and hearing evidence in that behalf. If the functions performed by the wage board would thus consist of the determination of the issues as between a proposition and an opposition on data and materials gathered by the board in answers to the questionnaire issued to all parties interested and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... could ever be urged against the determinations of the wage boards thus arrived at one the score of the principles of natural justice having been violated. We now proceed to consider how far the impugned Act violates the fundamental rights of the petitioners. Re : Article 19(1)(a). Art. 19(1)(a) guarantees to all citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression. It has, however, got to be read along with Art. 19(2) which lays down certain constitutionally permissible limitations on the exercise of that right. Art. 19(2) as substituted by the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, with retrospective effect reads as under : Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall effect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence. If any limitation on the exercise of the fundamental right under Art. 19(1)(a) does not fall with ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... equirements of the community combine and which existing techniques make possible. For these ends it must have full command on technical resources, financial strength, reasonable access to sources of information at home and abroad, and the necessary facilities for bringing information to the national market. The press must grow to the measure of this market. (p. 228). .................................................... There is paucity of authority in India on the nature, scope and extent of this fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Art. 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The first case which came up for decision before this court was that of Ramesh Thaper v. The State of Madras ([1950] S.C.R. 594, 597). It was a case of a ban on the entry and circulation of the appellant's journal in the State of Madras under the provisions of section 9(1-A) of the Madras Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1949, and it was observed by Patanjali Sastri J. (as he then was) at p. 597 : There can be no doubt that freedom of speech and expression includes freedom of propagation of ideas, and that freedom is ensured by the freedom of circulation. Liberty of circu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in order to appreciate the true nature, scope and extent of this right in spite of the warning administered by this Court against the use of American and other cases, (Vide State of Travancore-Cochin Ors. v. Bombay Co. Ltd. ([1952] S.C.R. 1112, 1120) and State of Bombay v. R. M. D. Chamarbaugwala. ([1957] S.C.R. 874, 918). Grosjean v. American Press Co. ([1935] 297 U.S. 233, 249; 80 L.Ed. 660, 668), was a case where a statute imposed a license tax on the business of publishing advertisements and it was observed at p. 668 : The evils to be prevented were not the censorship of the press merely, but any action of the Government by means of which it might prevent such free and general discussion of public matters as seems absolutely essential to prepare the people for an intelligent exercise of their rights as citizens. (Vide Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 8th Edn., Vol. II, p. 886). The statute was there struck down as unconstitutional because in the light of its history and of its present setting it was seen to be a deliberate and calculated device in the guise of a tax to limit the circulation ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The Supreme Court and the right of Free Speech and Press and it contains at p. 1153 the following passage under the captain Right in General : Freedom from Censorship and Punishment : The freedom of speech and of press are fundamental personal rights liberties, the exercise of which lies at the foundation of free Government by free men...... The very purpose of the first Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion; it rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public. The dissenting opinion of Douglas J. in Beauharnais v. Illinois ([1951] 343 U.S. 250, 285; 96 L.Ed. 919, 943) contains the following at p. 943 : There is room for regulation of the ways and means of invading privacy. No such leeway is granted the invasion of the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Until recent years that had been the course and direction of constitutional law. Yet recently the Court in this and other cases has engrafted the right of regulation onto the First ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mmune from any of the ordinary forms of taxation for support of the Government; But this is not an ordinary form of tax but one single in kind with a long history of hostile misuse against the freedom of the press. The predominant purpose of the grant of immunity here invoked was to preserve an untrammelled press as a vocal source of public information. The newspapers, magazines, and other journals of the country, it is safe to say, have shed and continue to shed, more light on the public and business affairs of the nation than any other instrumentality of publicity; and since informed public opinion is the most patent of all restraints upon mis-government, the suppression or abridgment of the publicity afforded by a free press cannot be regarded otherwise than with gave concern. The tax here involved is bad not because it takes money from the pockets of the appellees. If that were all, a wholly different question would be presented. It is bad : Because, in the light of its history and of its present setting, it is seen to be a deliberate and calculated device in the guise of a tax to limit the circulation of information to which the public is entitled in virtue of the consti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the exemption for small newspapers had the same object. Nothing in the Grosjean case ([1935] 297 U.S. 233, 249; 89 L.Ed. 660, 668), forbids congress to exempt some publishers because of size from either a tax or a regulation which would be valid if applied to all. The Constitution of the United States of America - Analysis and Interpretation - Prepared by the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, summarises the position thus at p. 792 : The Supreme Court, citing the fact that the American Revolution really began when......... that Government (of England) sent stamps for newspaper duties to the American colonies has been alert to the possible uses of taxation as a method of suppressing objectionable publications. Persons engaged in the dissemination of ideas are, to be sure, subject to ordinary forms of taxation in like manner as other persons. With respect to license or privilege taxes, however, they stand on a different footing. Their privilege is granted by the Constitution and cannot be withheld by either State or Federal Government. .................................. The application to newspapers of the Anti-Trust Laws, the National Labour ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Delhi ([1950] S.C.R. 605, 608), where Fazl Ali J. in his dissenting judgment observed at p. 619 : It must be recognized that freedom of speech and expression is one of the most valuable rights guaranteed to a citizen by the Constitution and should be jealously guarded by the Court. It must also be recognised that free political discussion is essential for the proper functioning of a democratic government, and the tendency of the modern jurists is to deprecate censorship though they all agree that liberty of the press is not to be confused with its licentiousness . But the Constitution itself has prescribed certain limits and this Court is only called upon to see whether a particular case comes within those limits. Unless, therefore, a law enacted by the Legislature comes squarely within the provisions of Art. 19(2) it would not be saved and would be struck down as unconstitutional on the score of its violating the fundamental right of the petitioners under Art. 19(1)(a). In the present case it is obvious that the only justification for the enactment of the impugned Act is that it imposes reasonable restrictions in the interests of a section of the general public, v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it clearly means that the legislation to be examined must be directly in respect of one of the rights mentioned in the sub-clauses. If there is a legislation directly attempting the control a citizen's freedom of speech or expression, or his right to assemble peaceably and without arms, etc., the question whether that legislation is saved by the relevant saving clause of article 19 will arise. If, however, the legislation is not directly in respect of any of these subjects, but as a result of the operation of other legislation, for instance, for punitive or preventive detention, his right under any of these sub-clauses is abridged, the question of the application of article 19 does not arise. The true approach is only to consider the directness of the legislation and not what will be the result of the detention otherwise valid, on the mode of the detenu's life. On that short ground, in my opinion, this argument about the infringement of the rights mentioned in article 19(1) generally must fail. Any other construction put on the article, it seems to me, will be unreasonable. This opinion was expressed by Kania C.J. alone, the other learned judges forming the Bench not e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y to regulate certain conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in the newspaper establishments and not to take away or abridge the right of freedom of speech and expression enjoyed by the petitioners and that therefore the impugned Act could not come within the prohibition of Art. 19(1)(a) read with Art. 13(2) of the Constitution. It was contended, on the other hand, on behalf of the petitioners that the Court has got to look at the true nature and character of the legislation and judge its substance and not its form, or in other words, its effect and operation. It was pointed out that the impugned Act viewed as a whole was one to regulate the employment of the necessary organs of newspaper publications and therefore related to the freedom of the press and as such came within the prohibition. Reliance was place in this behalf on the following passage in Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson : ([1930] 283 U.S. 697, 708; 75 L.Ed. 1357, 1363). With respect to these contentions it is enough to say that in passing upon constitutional questions the Court has regard to substance and not to mere matters of form, and that, in accordance with familiar, principles, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... It was conceded in the course of the arguments that if a general law in regard to the industrial or labour relations had been applied to the press industry as a whole no exception could have been taken to it. If the matter had rested with the application of the Industrial Disputes Act. 1947, to the working journalists or with the application of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, or the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952, to them no exception could have been taken to this measure. It was, however, urged that apart from the application of these general laws to the working journalists, there are provisions enacted in the impugned Act in relation to payment of gratuity, hours of work, leave and fixation of the rates of wages which are absolutely special to the press industry qua the working journalists and they have the effect of singling out the press industry by creating a class of privileged workers with benefits and rights which have not be conferred upon other employees and the provisions contained therein have the effect of laying a direct and preferential burden on the press, have a tendency to curtail the circulation and thereby narrow the scope of di ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ners' right to choose the instruments for exercising the freedom or compelling them to seek alternative media, etc., would be remote and depend upon various factors which may or may not come into pay. Unless these were the direct or inevitable consequences of the measures enacted in the impugned Act, it would not be possible to strike down the legislation as having that effect and operation. A possible eventuality of this type would not necessarily be the consequence which could be in the contemplation of the legislature while enacting a measure of this type for the benefit of the workmen concerned. Even though the impugned Act enacts measures for the benefit of the working journalists who are employed in newspaper establishments, the working journalists are but the vocal organs and the necessary agencies for the exercise of the right of free speech and expression, and any legislation directed towards the amelioration of their conditions of service must necessarily affect the newspaper establishments and have its repercussions on the freedom of Press. The impugned Act can therefore be legitimately characterized as a measure which affects the press, and if the intention or th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt of gratuity and compensation without making it incumbent on the Board to consider the major factor of the capacity of the industry to pay; (c) in authorizing the Board to have regard to not what is relevant for such fixation but to what the Board deems relevant for the purpose; and (d) in providing for a procedure which does not compel the Board to conform to the rules under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, thus permitting the Board to follow any arbitrary procedure violating the principle of audi alteram partem. The restrictions enumerated above in so far as they affect the destruction of the petitioners' business exceed the bounds of permissible legislation under Art. 19(1)(g). The unreasonableness of the restriction is further sought to be emphasized by pointing out that under s. 12 of the impugned Act, the decision of the Board is declared binding on all employers, though the working journalists are not bound by the same and are entitled, if they are dissatisfied with it, to agitate for further revision by raising industrial disputes between themselves and their employers and having them adjudicated under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The test of re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... strictions imposed, the extent and urgency of the evil sought to be remedied thereby, the disproportion of the imposition, the prevailing conditions at the time, should all enter into the judicial verdict. This criterion was approved of in State of West Bengal v. Subodh Gopal Bose Others ([1954] S.C.R. 587, 626) where the present Chief Justice further expressed his opinion that the fact of the statute being given retrospective operation may also be properly taken into consideration in determining the reasonableness of the restriction imposed in the interest of the general public [see also a recent decision of this Court in Virendra v. State of Punjab ([1958] S.C.R. 308)]. The appointment of a wage board for the purposes of fixing rates of wages could not be and was not challenged as such because the constitution of such wages boards has been considered one of the appropriate modes for the fixation of rates of wages. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, can only apply when an industrial dispute actually arises or is apprehended to arise between the employers and the employees in a particular industrial establishment. Though under the amendment of that Act by the Industrial D ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion to those specifically enumerated in s. 9(1) were such as to the Board may seem relevant thus relegating these circumstances to the subjective determination of the Board with the necessary consequence that no Court or other authority could scrutinize the same objectively. We do not propose to enter into any elaborate discussion on the question whether it would be competent to us in arriving at a proper construction of the expression fixing rates of wages to look into the Statement of Objects and Reasons attached to the Bill No. 13 of 1955 as introduced in the Rajya Sabha or the circumstances under which the word minimum came to be deleted from the provisions of the Bill relating to rates of wages and the Wage Board and the fact of such deletion when the Act came to be passed in its present form. There is a consensus of opinion that these are not aids to the construction of the terms of the Statute which have of course to be given their plain and grammatical meaning [See : Ashvini Kumar Ghosh Anr. v. Arabinda Bose Anr. ([1953] S.C.R. 1) and Provat Kumar Kar and others v. William Trevelyan Curtiez Parkar . It is only when the terms of the statute are ambiguous or vague ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oximate to a standard of wage, though having regard to the economic conditions of our country at present they could not find it within their power to fix living wages for the working journalists. The criteria which were specified in s. 9(1); of the Act comprised also the prevalent rates of wages for comparable employments. This criterion had no relation whatever to minimum wages. Reference may be made in this connection to a decision of the Industrial Court in the case of Nellimarla Jute Mills ([1953] 1 L.L.J. 666), where it was held that the comparison with rates of wages in other concerns, could be undertaken for determining fair wage and the upper limit of wages but not for determining the minimum or floor level of wages which should depend on the minimum requirements of the workers' family consisting of three consumption units. This criterion was no doubt taken into consideration by the members of the Committee on Fair Wages as also by the Press Commission and even though the Press Commission considered that to be an essential ingredient of the minimum wage as contemplated by it, we are not inclined to stress that circumstance so much and come to the conclusion that what wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o be justified, viz., :- that it was not made incumbent on the Board to consider the major factor of the capacity of the industry to pay as an essential circumstance in fixing the rates of wages. It is, however, well-recognized that the Courts would lean towards the constitutionality of an enactment and if it is possible to read this circumstance as comprised within the category of circumstances relating to the newspaper industry in different regions of the country, the court should not strike down the provisions as in any manner whatever unreasonable and violative of the fundamental right of the petitioners. We are therefore of opinion that s. 9(1) did not eschew the consideration of this essential circumstance, viz., the capacity of the industry to pay and it was not only open but incumbent upon the Wage Board to consider that essential circumstance in order to arrive at the fixation of the rates of wages of the working journalists. The last criterion enumerated in s. 9(1) of the Act was any other circumstance which to the Board may seem relevant and it was urged that this was left merely to the subjective determination of the Board and the Board was at liberty to conside ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... wrong in leaving other relevant considerations arising in the course of the enquiry to the subjective satisfaction of the Board. The Board was, after all, constituted of equal numbers of representative of employers and the employees and they were best calculated to take into account all the relevant circumstances apart from those which were specifically enumerated in the section. It was, however, contended that the procedure to be followed by the Board for fixing the rates of wages was not laid down and it was open to the Board to follow any arbitrary procedure violating the principle of audi alteram partem and as such this also was unreasonable. Section 20(2)(d) of the impugned Act gave power to the Central Government to make rules inter alia in regard to the procedure to be followed by the Board in fixing rates of wages and s. 11 provided that subject to any rules which might be prescribed the Board may, for the purpose of fixing rates of wages, exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure as an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, exercises or follows for the purpose of adjudicating an industrial dispute referred to it. This was, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... journalists. No doubt certain specific provisions as to payment of gratuity, hours of work and leave are specifically enacted, but when we come to the fixation of rates of wages we find that a wage board has been constituted for the purpose. The principles to be followed by the Wage Board for fixing rates of wages are also laid down and the decision of the Board is to be published in the same manner as awards of industrial courts under the Industrial Disputes Act. Then follows s. 11 which talks of the powers and procedure of the Board and there also, subject to any rules of procedure which may be prescribed by the Central Government, the Board is empowered to exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure as an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act. If regard be had to this provision it is abundantly clear that the intention of the legislature was to assimilate the Wage Board thus constituted as much as possible to an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and it was contemplated that the Board may for fixing rates of wages exercise the same powers and follow the same procedure. The Decision of the Board was to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted by Parliament are being properly exercised within such delegation (vide Rule 317 ibid). The constitution by the Legislature of the Wages Board in the matter of the fixation of rates of wages was not considered as a piece of delegated legislation in the memorandum regarding delegated legislation appended to the draft Bill No. 13 of 1955 introduced in the Rajya Sabha on September 28, 1955, and the only reference that was made there was to Clause 19 of the Bill which empowered the Central Government to make rules in respect of certain matters specified therein and it was stated that these were purely procedural matters of a routine character an related inter alia to prescribing hours of work, payment of gratuity, holidays, earned leave or other kinds of leave and the procedure to be followed by the Minimum Wages Board in fixing minimum wages and the manner in which its decisions may be published. Clause 19(3) of the Bill further provided that all rules made under this section shall as soon as practicable after they are made, be laid before both Houses of Parliament. These clauses were ultimately passed as s. 20 of the Impugned Act but they were the only piece of delegated legislat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re is a marked distinction to be drawn between the prohibition or prevention of a trade and the regulation or governance of it and indeed a power to regulate and govern seems to imply the continued existence of that which is sought to be regulated or governed. These observations were considered by this Court in Saghir Ahmed v. State of U.P. Ors. and after considering the various cases which were cited by both sides, this Court observed : Be that as it may, although in our opinion the normal use of the word restriction seems to be in the sense of limitation and not extinction , we would on this occasion prefer not to express any final opinion on this matter and the Court ultimately wound up by saying that whether the restrictions are reasonable or not would depend to a large extent on the nature of the trade and the conditions prevalent in it. Even if the provisions of the impugned Act would not necessarily have the effect of destroying the business of the petitioners but of crippling it and making it impossible for the petitioners to continue the same except under onerous conditions, they would have the effect of curtailing their circulation and drive them t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re constitute an unreasonable restriction on the petitioners' right to carry on business. We shall deal with these contentions one by one. There is no doubt that proof-readers were not all recommended by the Press Commission to be included in the definition of working journalists, but it has to be remembered that proof-readers occupy a very important position in the editorial staff of a newspaper establishment. B. Sen Gupta in his Journalism as a Career (1955) talks of the position of the proof-reader as follows : The proof-reader is another important link in the production of a newspaper. On him depends, not to a small extent, the reputation of a paper. He has to be very careful in correcting mistakes and pointing out any error of fact or grammar that has crept into any news item or article through oversight or hurry on the part of the sub-editor. He has not only to correct mistakes but also to see that corrections are carried out , and the Kemsley Manual of Journalism has the following passage at p. 337 : Having thus seen the proof-reader in action, let us consider in detail what proof-reading denotes. It is primarily the art and practice of finding mista ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Co. Ltd., (1894) 10 T.L.R. 647); to twelve months (Grundy v. Sun Printing and Publishing Association, (1916) 33 T.L.R. 77, C.A.). Sub-editor of a newspaper, six months (Chamberlain v. Bennett, (1892) 8 T.L.R. 234). Foreign correspondent to The Times, six months period (Lowe v. Walter, (1892) 8 T.L.R. 358). The Press Commission also recommended that the period of notice for the termination of services should be based on the length of the service rendered and the nature of the appointment. There could be no hard and fast rule as to what the notice period should be. The practice upheld by law or by collective bargaining varies from country to country. In England the practice established by some judicial decisions is that the editor is entitled to a year's notice and an assistant editor to six months' notice. After examining the provisions in regard to notice which are in vogue in England, the Commission also noticed a decision in Bombay (Suit No. 735 of 1951 in the City Civil Court) where the judge concerned held that in the circumstances of the particular case the plaintiff, an assistant editor was entitled to a notice of four months although in normal times, he sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sideration the capacity of the concern and other factors therein referred to and directed gratuity on full scale... which included... (2) on voluntary retirement or resignation of an employee after 15 years continuous service. Similar considerations were imported in the case of the Indian Oxygen Acetylene Co., Ltd. ([1956] 1 L.L.J. 435), where it was observed : It is now well-settled by a series of decisions of the Appellate Tribunal that where an employer company has the financial capacity the workmen would be entitled to the benefit of gratuity in addition to be benefits of the Provident Fund. In considering the financial capacity of the concern what has to be seen is the general financial stability of the concern. The factors to be considered before granting a scheme of gratuity are the broad aspects of the financial condition of the concern, its profit earning capacity, the profit earned in the past, its reserves and the possibility of replenishing the reserves, the claim of capital put having regard to the risk involved, in short the financial stability of the concern. There also the court awarded gratuity under ground No. 2, viz., on retirement or resignation of a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... acknowledged in a number of countries. It was stated in the collective contract of January 31, 1938, in Poland in this form : The following are good and sufficient reasons for a journalist to cancel his contract without warning; (a) the exertion of pressure by an employer upon a journalist to induce him to perform an immoral action; (b) a fundamental change in the political outlook of the journal, proclaimed by public declaration or otherwise made manifest, if the journalist's employment would thereafter be contrary to his political opinions or the dictates of his conscience. A similar clause is to be found in Switzerland, in the collective agreement signed on April 1, 1948, between the Geneva Press Association and the Geneva Union of Newspaper Publishers : If a marked change takes place in the character or fundamental policy of the newspaper, if the concern no longer has the same moral, political or religious character that it had at the moment when an editorial employee was engaged and if this change is such as to prejudice his honour, his reputation or, in a general way, his moral interests, he may demand his instant release. In these circumstances he shall b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... casion to deal with this provision in connection with the alleged infringement of the fundamental right under Art. 14 hereafter. We do not subscribe to the view that such a provision infringes the fundamental right of the petitioners to carry on business under Art. 19(1)(g). This attack of the petitioners on the constitutionality of the impugned Act under Art. 19(1)(g), viz., that it violates the petitioners' fundamental right to carry on business, therefore, fails except in regard to s. 5(1)(a)(iii) thereof which being clearly severable from the rest of the provisions, can be struck down as unconstitutional without invalidating the other parts of the impugned Act. Re. Article 14. The question as formulated is that the impugned Act selected the working journalists for favoured treatment by giving them a statutory guarantee of gratuity, hours of work and leave which other persons in similar or comparable employment had not got and in providing for the fixation of their salaries without following the normal procedure envisaged in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The following propositions are advanced :- In selecting the Press industry employers from all industrial ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hile article 14 forbids class legislation, it does not forbid reasonable classification for the purposes of legislation. In order, however, to pass the test of permissible classification two conditions must be fulfilled, namely, (i) that the classification must be founded on an intelligible differentia which distinguishes persons or things that are grouped together from others left out of the group and (ii) that that differentia must have a rational relation to the object sought to be achieved by the statute in question. The classification may be founded on different bases; namely, geographical, or according to objects or occupations or the like. What is necessary is that there must be a nexus between the basis of classification and the object of the Act under consideration. It is also well-established by the decisions of this Court that article 14 condemns discrimination not only by a substantive law but also by a law of procedure. It is the light of these observations that we shall now proceed to consider whether the impugned Act violates the fundamental right of the petitioners guaranteed under Art. 14 of the Constitution. We have already set out what the Press Commissio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of other industries a change in the proprietorship does not normally entail a change in the staff. But as the essential purpose of a newspaper is not only to give news but to educate and guide public opinion, a change in the proprietorship or in the editorial policy of the paper may result and in some cases has resulted in a wholesale change of the staff on the editorial side. These circumstances, which are peculiar to journalism must be borne in mind in framing any scheme for improvement of the conditions of working journalists. (para. 512). These were the considerations which weighed with the Press Commission in recommending the working journalists for special treatment as compared with the other employees of newspaper establishments in the matter of amelioration of their conditions of service. We may also in this connection refer to the following passage from the Legislation for Press, Film and Radio in the world to-day (a series of studies published by UNESCO in 1951) (supra) at p. 403 :- Under certain systems, special advantages more extensive than those enjoyed by ordinary employees are conferred upon journalists. These may be sanctioned by the law itself. For in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... compensation and gratuities, the regulation of their hours of work and the fixation of the rates of their wages as compared with those of other workmen in the newspaper establishments could also be enacted without any such disability and the machinery for fixing their rates of wages by way of constituting a wage board for the purpose could be similarly devised. There was no industrial dispute as such which had arisen or was apprehended to arise as between the employers and the working journalists in general, though it could have possibly arisen as between the employers in a particular newspaper establishment and its own working journalists. What was contemplated by the provisions of the impugned Act however, was a general fixation of rates of wages of working journalists which would ameliorate the conditions of their service and the constitution of a wage board for this purpose was one of the established modes of achieving that object. If, therefore, such a machinery was devised for their benefit, there was nothing objectionable in it and there was no discrimination as between the working journalists and the other employees of newspaper establishments in that behalf. The capacity o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecovery of money due from the employers in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue also was not discriminatory. In the conflict between the employers and the employees it very often came about that the employers did not implement the measures which had been enacted for the benefit of the employees and the employees were thus hard put to realise and cash those benefits. Even the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, contained a like provision in s. 33C thereof (vide the amendment incorporated therein by Act 36 of 1956) which in its turn was a reproduction of the old s. 25-I which had been inserted therein by Act 43 of 1953. It may be remembered that if the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which was a general Act, had been made applicable to the working journalists there would have been no quarrel with the same. Much less there could be any quarrel with the introduction of s. 17 into the impugned Act when the aim and object of such provision was to provide the working journalists who were a group by themselves from amongst employees employed in the newspaper establishments with a remedy for the recovery of the monies due to them in the same manner as the workmen under t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tory. It is contended that the right to apply to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari required an order infringing a fundamental right, that such a right was itself a fundamental right and any legislation which attempted to restrict or defeat this right was an infraction of Art. 32 and was as such void. It is further contended that a writ of certiorari could effectively be directed only against a speaking order, i.e., an order disclosing reasons, and if a statute enabled the passing of an order that need give no reasons such statute attempted to sterilize the powers of this Court from investigating the validity of the order and was therefore violative of Art. 32. Learned Counsel for the petitioners has relied upon a decision of the English Court in Rex v. Northumberland Compensation Appeal Tribunal, Ex parte Shaw ([1951] 1 K.B. 711, 718) where Lord Goddard C.J. observed at p. 718 :- Similarly anything that is stated in the order which an inferior court has made and which has been brought up into this court can be examined by the court, if it be a speaking order, that is to say, an order which sets out the grounds of the decision. If the order is merely a statement of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y contain some other vague or irrelevant material. The whole purpose of furnishing a detained person with the grounds is to enable him to make a representation refuting these grounds and of proving his innocence. In order that this Court may be able to safeguard this fundamental right and to grant him relief it is absolutely essential that the detenu is not prohibited under penalty of punishment to disclose the grounds to the Court and no injunction by law can be issued to this Court disabling it from having a look at the grounds. Section 14 creates a substantive offence if the grounds are disclosed and it also lays a duty on the Court not to permit the disclosure of such grounds. It virtually amounts to a suspension of a guaranteed right provided by the Constitution inasmuch as it indirectly by a stringent provision makes administration of the law by this Court impossible and at the same time it deprives a detained person from obtaining justice from this Court. In my opinion, therefore, this section when it prohibits the disclosure of the grounds contravenes or abridges the rights given by Part III to a citizen and is ultra vires the powers of Parliament to that extent. It is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y on July 30, 1956. (2) The decision by a majority was unwarranted by the Act and since there was no provision in the Act, the Rules providing for the same went beyond the Act and were therefore ultra vires. (3) The procedure followed by the Board offended the principles of natural justice and was therefore invalid; (4) The decision was invalid, because (a) no reasons were given, (b) nor did it disclose what considerations prevailed with the Board in arriving at its decision; (5) Classification on the basis of gross revenue was illegal and unauthorised by the Act. (6) Grouping into chains or multiple units was unauthorised by the Act. (7) The Board was not authorised by the Act to fix the salaries of journalists except in relation to a particular industrial establishment and not on an All-India basis of all newspapers taken together; (8) The decision was bad as it did not disclose that the capacity to pay of any particular establishment was ever taken into consideration. (9) The Board had no authority to render a decision which was retrospective in operation. (10) The Board had no authority to fix scales of pay for a period of 3 years (subject to re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s power of constituting the Wage Board must be construed having regard to s. 14 of the General clauses Act, 1897, which says that where by any Central Act or Regulation made after the commencement of the Act, any power is conferred then, unless a different intention appears that power may be exercised from time to time as occasion arises. If this is the true position there was nothing objectionable in the Central Government re-constituting the Board on the resignation of Shri K. P. Kesava Menon being accepted by it. The Wage Board can in any event be deemed to have been constituted as on that date, viz., July 14, 1956, when all the 5 members within the contemplation of s. 8(2) of the Act were in a position to function. Shri K. P. Kesava Menon had not attended the preliminary meeting of the Board which had been held on May 26, 1956, and the real work of the Wage Board was done after the appointment of Shri K. M. Cherian in his place and stead and it was only after July 14, 1956, that the Wage Board as a whole constituted as it was on that date really functioned as such. The objection urged by the petitioners in this behalf is too technical to make any substantial difference in regar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s addressed failed to send their replies to the same and the Wage Board at its meeting held on August 17, 1956, reiterated the position and decided to issue a Press Note requesting the newspapers and journals to send their replies as soon as possible, inviting their attention to the fact that the Board had powers of an Industrial Tribunal under the Act and if newspapers failed to send their replies, the Board would be compelled to take further steps in the matter. This is clearly indicative of the fact that the Wage Board did seek to exercise the powers under the terms of s. 11 of the Act. Even though, the exercise of such powers was discretionary with the Board, the Board itself assumed these powers and assimilated its position to that of an Industrial Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. If, then, it assumed those powers, it only followed that it was also bound to follow the procedure which an Industrial Tribunal so constituted was bound to follow. It is further urged that in the whole of the questionnaire which was addressed by the Wage Board to the newspaper establishments, there was no concrete proposal which was submitted by the Wage Board to them ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e of any such reasons, however, it was difficult to divine what considerations, if any, prevailed with the Wage Board in arriving at its decision on the various points involved therein. It was no doubt not incumbent on the Wage Board to give any reasons for its decision. The Act made no provision in this behalf and the Board was perfectly within its rights if it chose not to give any reasons for its decision. Prudence should, however, have dictated that it gave reasons for the decision which it ultimately reached because if it had done so, we would have been spared the necessity of trying to probe into its mind and find out whether any particular circumstance received due consideration at its hands in arriving at its decision. The fact that no reasons are thus given, however, would not vitiate the decision in any manner and we may at once say that even though no reasons are given in the form of a regular judgment, we have sufficient indication of the Chairman's mind in the note which he made on April 30, 1956, which is a contemporaneous record explaining the reasons for the decision of the majority. This note of the chairman is very revealing and throws considerable light on th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... newspapers in the manner following :- A Class - Papers with (1) a circulation of 10,000 copies or above or (2) an invested capital of rupees 3 lakhs or more or (3) an annual income of rupees 3 lakhs or more; B Class - Papers with (1) a circulation below 10,000 but above 5,000 copies or (2) an invested capital between rupees one lakh and 3 lakhs or (3) an annual income between rupees one lakh and 3 lakhs; C Class - Papers with (1) a circulation below 5000 copies or (2) an invested capital below rupees one lakh or (3) an annual income below rupees one lakh. The classification on the basis of gross revenue was attacked by the petitioners on the ground that in the gross revenue which is earned by the newspaper establishments, advertisement revenue ordinarily forms a large bulk of such revenue and the revenue earned by circulation of newspapers forms more often than not a small part of the same, though in regard to language newspapers the position may be somewhat different. Unless, therefore, the proportion of advertisement revenue in the gross revenue of newspaper establishments were taken into consideration, it would not be possible to form a correct estimate of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and if the Wage Board thus chose to group them together in that manner such grouping by itself could not be open to attack. The Act could not have expressly authorized the Wage Board to adopt such grouping. It was up to the Wage Board to consider whether such grouping was justified under the circumstances or not and unless we find something in the Act which prohibits the Wage Board from doing so, we would not deem any such grouping as unauthorised. The real difficulty, however, in the matter of grouping into chains or multiple units arises in connection with the capacity of the industry to pay, a topic which we shall discuss hereafter while discussing the ground in connection therewith. Re. 7. This ground is based on the definition of newspaper establishment found in Section 2(d) of the Act. Newspaper establishment is there defined as an establishment under the control of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, for the production or publication of one or more newspapers or for conducting any news agency or syndicate. So, the contention put forward is that an establishment can only mean an establishment and not a group of them, even though such a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... wspaper establishments producing or publishing such newspapers cannot be treated as one individual establishment but should be treated as separate newspaper establishments for the purpose of working out the relations between themselves and their employees. There would be no justification for including these different newspaper establishments into one chain or multiple unit and treating them, as if they were one newspaper establishment. Here again, the petitioners are faced with this difficulty that there is nothing in the Act to prohibit such a grouping. If a classification on the basis of gross revenue could be legitimately adopted by the Wage Board then the grouping into chains or multiple units could also be made by it. There is nothing in the Act to prohibit the treating of several newspaper establishments producing or publishing one or more newspapers though in different parts of the country as one newspaper establishment for the purpose of fixing the rates of wages. It would not be illegitimate to expect the same standard of employment and conditions of service in several newspaper establishments under the control of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not; ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ised therein. The only question in the questionnaire as finally framed which had any reference to this criterion was Question No. 7 in Part A under the heading Special circumstances and that question was : Are there in your regions any special conditions in respect of the newspaper industry which affect the fixing of rates of wages of working journalists ? If so, specify the conditions and indicate how they affect the question of wages. But here also it is difficult to find that the capacity of the industry to pay was really sought to be included in these special conditions. The Wage Board no doubt asked for detailed accounts of newspaper establishments and also required information which would help it in the proper evaluation of the nature and quality of work of various categories of working journalists, but the capacity of the industry to pay which was one of the essential considerations was nowhere prominently brought in issue and information on that point was sought from the various newspaper establishments to whom the questionnaire was going to be addressed. The answers to Question No. 7 as summarized by the Wage Board no doubt referred in some cases to the capac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s of the decision of the Wage Board at the time of the review. The Wage Board, in fact, groped in the dark in the absence of sufficient data and information which would enable it to come to a proper conclusion in regard to the wage structure which it was to determine. In the absence of such data and materials the Board was not in a position to work out what would be the impact of its proposals on the capacity of the industry to pay as a whole or even region-wise and the chairman in his note stated that it was difficult for the Board at that stage to work out with any degree of precision, the economic and other effects of its decision on the newspaper industry as a whole. Even with regard to the impact of these proposals on individual newspaper establishments the chairman stated that the future of the Indian language newspapers was bright, having regard to increasing literacy and the growth of political consciousness of the reading public, and by rational management there was great scope for increasing the income of newspapers and even though there was no possibility of any adjustment which might satisfy all persons interested, it was hoped that no newspaper would be forced to close ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fixing the rates of wages also fix the scales of wages. The Press Commission itself had merely suggested a basic minimum wage for the consideration of the parties concerned but had suggested that so far as the scales of wages were concerned they were to be settled by collective bargaining or by adjudication. Even though the Wage Board took upon itself the burden of fixing scales of wages as really comprised within the terms of their reference, it was incumbent upon it to consider what the impact of the scales of wages fixed by it would be on the capacity of the industry to pay. There is nothing on the record to suggest that both as regards the rates of wages and the scales of wages which it determined the Wage Board ever took into account as to what the impact of its decision would be on the capacity of the industry to pay either as a whole or region-wise. There is, however, a further difficulty in upholding the decision of the Wage Board in this behalf and it is this that even as regards the fixation of the rates of wages of working journalists the Wage Board does not seem to have taken into account the other provisions of the Act which conferred upon the working journalists th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dly depicted in the statements furnished to us on behalf of the petitioners in the course of the hearing before us. These statements showed that the wage bill of these newspaper establishments was going to be considerably increased, that the retrospective operation of the decision was going to knock off a considerable sum from their reserves and that the burden imposed upon the newspaper establishments by the joint impact of the provisions of the Act in regard to retrenchment compensation, payment of gratuity, hours of work and leave as well as the decision of the Wage Board in regard to the fixing of rates of wages and the scales of wages would be such a could principle the resources of the newspaper establishments, if not necessarily lead to their complete extinction. The statements also showed what extra burden was imposed upon the newspaper establishments, if they wanted to discharge the working journalists from their employ which burden was all the grater, if per chance, the newspaper establishments, even though reluctantly came to a decision that it was worth their while to close down their business rather than continue the same with all these financial burdens imposed upon t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e employers. Nowhere can we find in the instant case any genuine consideration of the capacity of the industry to pay either as a whole or region-wise. We are supported in this conclusion by the observations of the chairman himself in the note which he made simultaneously with the publication of the decision on April 30, 1957, that it was difficult for the Wage Board at that stage to work out with any degree of precision, the economic and other effects of the decision on the newspaper industry as a whole. An attempt was made on behalf of the respondents in the course of the hearing before us to shew that by the conversion of the currency into naye pyse and the newspapers chargeing to the public higher price by reason of such conversion, the income of several newspapers had appreciably increased. These figures were, however, controverted on behalf of the petitioners and it was pointed out that whatever increase in the revenue was brought about by reason of this conversion of price into naye pyse was more than offset by the fall in circulation, ever rising price of newsprint and the higher commission, etc., which was payable by the newspaper establishments to their commission agen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ry to consider the capacity of each individual unit to pay but it would certainly be necessary to consider the capacity of the respective classes to bear the burden imposed on them. A cross-section of these respective classes may have to be taken for careful examination and all relevant factors may have to be borne in mind in deciding what burden the class considered as a whole can bear. If possible, an attempt can also be made, and is often made, to project the burden of the wage structure into two or three succeeding years and determine how it affects the financial position of the employer. The whole of the record before the Board including the chairman's note gives no indication at all that an attempt was made by the Board to consider the capacity of the industry to pay in this manner. Indeed, the proceedings show that the demand made by the representatives of the employees and the concessions made by the employers' representatives were taken as rival contentions and the Chairman did his best to arrive at his final decision on the usual basis of give and take. In adopting this course, all the members of the Board seem to have lost sight of the fact that the essential pre ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... This ground also cannot avail the petitioners for the simple reason that the decision of the Wage Board itself referred in Clause 24 thereof to the all India cost of living index number published by the Labour Bureau of the Government of India O Base 1944 : 100 and fixed the dearness allowance in relation to the same. These statistics were available to the Wage Board and it cannot be said that the Wage Board was in any manner whatever handicapped in that respect. On a consideration of all the grounds of attack thus leveled against the validity and the binding nature of the decision of the Wage Board, we have, therefore, come to the conclusion that the said decision cannot be sustained and must be set aside. The petitions will, therefore, be allowed and the petitioners will be entitled to an order declaring that s. 5(1)(a)(iii) of the Working Journalists (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, is ultra vires the Constitution of India and that the decision of the Wage Board dated April 30, 1957, is illegal and void. As regards the costs, in view of the fact that the petitioners have failed in most of their contentions in regard to the constitutionali ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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