The wages earned by the workmen for the paid festival holidays should be included in the basic earnings for calculating the bonus under the Coal Mines Bonus Scheme, 1948.

1. In this case the petitioners have obtained a rule from the High Court calling upon the respondents to show cause why the award of the Central Government Industrial Tribunal, Dhanbad, dated the 28th June, 1960, in Reference No. 17 of 1960, should not be quashed by grant of a writ under Article 226 of the Constitution.

2. Cause has been shown by learned Counsel on behalf of the respondents to whom notice of the rule was ordered to be given.

3. On the 25th March, 1960, the Government of India referred the following industrial dispute by its order No. 1/24/60-II-LRII in exercise of the powers conferred by Sec.10 (1) (d) of the Industrial Disputes Act:

"Whether the management was justified in not including the wages earned by the workmen for the four paid festival holidays during the quarter ending December, 1959, for the purposes of calculating the bonus for the said quarters?

If not, to what relief are the workmen entitled? The Industrial Tribunal has come to the conclusion that the management was not justified in excluding the wages earned by the workmen for the four paid festival holidays during the quarter ending December, 1959, for the purpose of calculating the bonus for the said quarter.

4. On behalf of the petitioners it was submitted that the Industrial Tribunal has committed ah error of law in holding that the amount of bonus should be calculated on the basis of the wages earned-during the four paid festival holidays during the quarter ending December, 1959. Reference was made by learned Counsel to paragraph 7 (2) of the Goal Mines Bonus Scheme, 1948, which reads as follows:

"7. (2) The amount of bonus payable to an employee in respect of any quarter after the 30th of June, 1948, in the case of coal mines in West Bengal and Bihar and in respect of any period or quarter in the case of coal mines in the Central Provinces and Berar and Orissa shall be one-third of the basic earnings of the employee for work done in the period or quarter in the coal mine wherein he qualifies for bonus."

The expression "basic earnings" is defined in paragraph 2 (aa) of the Scheme as

"the total cash emoluments, whether earned while on duty or while on leave with pay, but excluding all payments for food concession, dearness, house rent and other similar allowances, overtime, commission, presents or donations."

The argument presented on behalf of the petitioners is that a workman cannot be treated to be on duty on the festival holidays and so the emoluments he earned for those holidays cannot be treated as "basic earnings" within the meaning of Paragraph 2 (aa) of the Coal Mines Bonus Scheme, We are unable to accept the argument put forward on behalf of the petitioners as correct. The expression "basic earnings" in paragraph 2 (aa) has been defined to mean

"the total cash emoluments, whether earned while on duty or while on leave with pay."

In our opinion "the total cash emoluments earned by the workmen on festival holidays must be treated as basic earnings for the purpose of computing the bonus under paragraph 7 (2) of the Coal Mines Bonus Scheme, because the emoluments have been earned by the workmen while they were on duty. The view that we have expressed is supported also by the language of paragraph 2 (aa) which excludes certain categories of emoluments from the computation of basic earnings. The items excluded are payments for food concession, clearness, house rent and other similar allowances, overtime, commission, presents or donations. It is significant that the items of payment which are excluded do not cover the emoluments earned by the workmen during the festival holidays. We are, therefore, of opinion that the view taken by the Industrial Tribunal that the wages earned by the workmen for the four paid festival holidays should be included by the management for the purpose of calculating the bonus for the quarter in question is correct We, therefore, reject the argument on behalf of the petitioners on this part of the case.