M/s Sirpur Paper Mills Limited established a factory in Adilabad (for short ‘the Company’). It undertakes manufacture of paper and other allied activities, as part of its activity. It engages employees on regular basis and avails the services of contract labour also. The State of Andhra Pradesh is the appropriate Government, in relation to the Company. In exercise of its power under Sections 3 and 5 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (for short ‘the M.W Act’), it issued notifications, fixing the minimum wages for the persons, employed in the manufacture of “paper and paper boards (including straw board), including hand made paper”, occurring in Part-I of the Schedule of that Act, from time to time, and they are published in the State Gazette. The Company filed W.P.No.16737 of 2003 and batch, challenging the successive notifications, mainly on the ground that the wages prescribed under the notifications cannot be made applicable to contract labour, engaged by it.

2. According to the Company, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (for short ‘the C.L Act’) and the Rules made thereunder alone regulate the conditions of the engagement of the contract labour. It