ORDER :

1. By way of these petitions under Article 139A(1) read with Order XL of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, the petitioners, led by the Union of India, have prayed for transfer of various writ petitions, pending before different High Courts challenging the constitutional validity of the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 [being Act No. 6 of 2016]¹ [Hereinafter also referred to as ‘the Amendment Act of 2015’] to this Court.

2. As per the record, though the first set of transfer petitions in this batch, being T.P. (C) Nos. 884-895 of 2016, was entertained on 01.07.2016 by issuing notices but, in the next set of petitions, being T.P. (C) Nos. 1456-1461 of 2016, while issuing notices on 26.09.2016, further proceedings in the related writ petitions pending before the Allahabad High Court were stayed. Thereafter, from time to time and until 06.08.2018, other transfer petitions comprising this batch were entertained and similar interim orders were passed, staying further proceedings in the writ petitions pending before the respective High Courts. In the next two matters, being T.P. (C) No. 1954 of 2018 and T.P. (C) No. 218 of 2019, notices were issued respectively on 26.11.2018 and 08.02.2019 but without any specific stay order. Thereafter, on 08.04.2019, T.P. (C) No. 683 of 2019 was entertained and while issuing notices, again, further proceedings in the subject writ petition before the High Court concerned were stayed.

3. It may be noticed that in T.P. (C) Nos. 1490-1491 of 2016, the respondent No. 1 Tata Motors Ltd. has stated no objection to the transfer of its case to this Court, being W.P. (C) Nos. 11112-13 of 2016 pending before the High Court of Karnataka. Similarly, in T.P. (C) Nos. 590-598 of 2017, one of the respondents, the State of Madhya Pradesh, has stated no objection if the subject writ petition pending before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh is transferred to this Court. Similar has been the stand of the State of Madhya Pradesh in T.P. (C) Nos. 760-789 of 2017 and of the State of Bihar in T.P. (C) No. 856 of 2018. The State of Himachal Pradesh has also not stated any specific objection in relation to the prayer for transfer in T.P. (C) No. 1237 of 2018. Similarly, the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 in T.P. (C) Nos. 885-886 of 2016, being Karnataka Employers Association and Sai Security Printers Pvt. Ltd., have also stated no objection if W.P. (C) No. 5311 of 2016 pending before the High Court of Karnataka is transferred to this Court. However, several of the other respondents in this batch of matters have strongly opposed the prayer for transfer of the respective writ petitions to this Court on various grounds, as shall be noticed a little later.

4. Shorn of unnecessary details, the aspects relevant for the present purpose are as follows:

4.1. By the said Amendment Act of 2015, two major changes were introduced to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965² [Hereinafter also referred to as ‘the Act of 1965’ or simply as ‘the Act’] one being the amendment of clause (13) of Section 2, raising the salary limit from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 21,000/- per month for the purpose of coverage under the Act and the other being raising the wage ceiling for calculating the bonus under Section 12 from Rs. 3,500/- to Rs. 7,000/- per month or the minimum wages for the scheduled employment as fixed by the appropriate Government, whichever be the higher. Further, by way of Explanation to Section 12, it was clarified that the expression “scheduled employment” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (g) of Section 2 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. These amendments were given retrospective effect in Section 1 of the Amendment Act of 2015 by providing that it shall be deemed to have come into force on 01.04.2014.

4.2. The said amended provisions, i.e. clause (13) of Section 2 as also Section 12 of the Act of 1965, with necessary explanatory notes, are extracted as under:

“2. Definitions - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

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