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TMI Blog1990 (8) TMI 400X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . 2 the Secretary of appellant No. 3 which is hereinafter referred to as the company. On May 2, 1973 Kumari J. G. Mukhi, who is a Government Labour officer-cum-Minimum Wages Inspector, visited the Company's establishment and found that the following documents which, according to her, the Company was bound to maintain in compliance with the provisions of section 18 of the Act read with the relevant rules of the Gujarat Minimum Wages Rules, 1961, had not been maintained by it. (a) Muster Roll in Form V as contemplated by rule 26(5). (b) Wage Register in Form IV-A as required by rule 26(]). (c) Attendance cards in form V-D as provided by rule 26(B). (d) Wage slip in form IV-B prescribed by rule 26(2). In consequence, two complaints were filed against the appellants by N. H. Dave, Labour officer-cum-Minimum Wages Inspector. Rajkot in the court of the trial Magistrate, each praying that the appellants be convicted and sentenced for an offence under section 22A of the Act. One of the complaints was in respect of the contravention of rules 26(1) and 26(S) while the other embraced that of rules 26(2) and 26-B. They were registered as Criminal Cases Nos. 674 and 675 of 1973 respective ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a vanaspati manufacturing mill is different from an oil mill. 4. After the trial the learned Magistrate repelled all the pleas taken up by the appellants in his judgment dated October 13, 1975. His findings were as follows: (i) The Company no doubt manufactured oil from oil seeds and subjected the same to further processes in order to produce . vanaspati. However, the Company was selling not only the vanaspati manufactured by it but also oil and refined oil as such in addition to oil cakes and de-oiled cakes, which was being done not merely in exigencies pleaded by the Company but in the regular course of business. (ii) One of the committees appointed by the Government under section S of the Act had issued a questionnaire to the Company itself before making recommendations regarding fixation and revision of minimum wages for various kinds of employees working in an oil mill and it was not, therefore, open to the Company to contend that no opportunity was given to it to be heard in relation to such fixation and revision. (iii) The Company was an oil mill within the meaning of that expression as used in item S of Part I of the Schedule to the Act and the Act, therefore, is appl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... clause (g) of the same section a 'scheduled employment' means any employment specified in the Schedule to the Act or any process or branch of work forming part of such employment. The Schedule is in two parts. Part I enumerates various employment. Item S of that part reads: "Employment in any oil mill" Section 5 lays down procedure for the fixation and revision of mini mum rates of wages in respect of any scheduled employment by the Government which is authorised to appoint as many committees or subcommittee as it considers necessary to hold inquiries and advise it in respect of such fixation or revision. Section 9 deals with the com position of the aforesaid committees and reads thus: "Each of the committees, sub-committees and the Advisory Board shall consist of persons to be nominated by the appropriate Government representing employers and employees in the scheduled employments, who shall be equal in number, and independent persons not exceeding one-third of its total number of members: one of such independent persons shall be appointed the - chairman by the appropriate Government." 7. The following corollaries are immediately deducible from the provis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... water but are soluble in ether, naphtha, and often alcohol and other organic solvents, that leave a greasy not necessarily permanent stain (as on paper or cloth), that may be of animal, vegetable, mineral, or synthetic origin, and that are used according to their types chiefly as lubricants, fuels and illuminates as food. in soap and candles, and in perfumes and flavouring materials". All the ingredients of this meaning are fully satisfied in the case of hydrogenated vegetable oil. We may specially point out that even solids easily liquefiable on warming fall within the meaning given by Webster. Now the various processes, namely, neutralization, bleaching, deodorisation, hardening and hydrogenation to which oil is subjected for being converted into vanaspati leave its basic characteristics untouched, i.e, it remains a cooking medium with vegetable fat as its main ingredient. Neutralisation, bleaching and deodorisation are merely refining processes so that the colour, the odour and foreign A substances are removed from it before it is hydrogenated and hardened and even the two processes last mentioned allow the oil to retain whose characteristics. Even ghee, for that matter, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... make the Company an oil mill even if the bulk of the oil produced by it is converted into vanaspati and sold in that form The reason is obvious. It is not the case of the Company that the proportion Of sales of oil to those of vanaspati is so low that the former should be ignored. In this situation a sizeable part of the activities of the Company must be field to be connected with running an oil mill and the Company, therefore would be liable to be classified as such to that extent even though it also carries on business other than 10. The grouse of the Company that the provisions of sections 5 and 9 have not been complied with has for its basis the assumption that it is not an oil mill an assumption which must be held to be ill-founded in view of the foregoing discussion and the classification of the company with reference to item S in Part I of the Schedule to the Act. It is not disputed that if the Company is to be regarded as an oil mill, sections S and 9 do not come to its rescue because representatives of oil mills did man the committee appointed by the Government for fixing the minimum rates of wages in respect of employment in an oil mill and that the Company itself (as w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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