1. THE petitioner-company at the material time had a factory at No. 99, Dr. Abani Dutta Road, howrah. It is undisputed that the Employees' state Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter called the said Act) applied to the said factory of the petitioner and the persons employed therein were " employees " as defined by S. 2 (9) of the said Act. The petitioner has claimed that it had been regularly depositing contributions in respect of the " wages" paid to the said employees in accordance with the provisions of the Employees' State Insurance Act.

2. ON June 8, 1970 there was a Memorandum of Settlement between the petitioner-company and its workmen for resolving outstanding disputes. The Conciliation Officer, Government of West Bengal also signed the said Memorandum of Settlement. It is not necessary for the present purpose to refer to the terms of the said settlement relating to grade, scales of pay, dearness allowance, etc. The Term No. 54 of the said settlement provided " the incentive scheme shall be as detailed in Annexure III. " the Annexure 111 to the said Memorandum of settlement contained detailed provisions relating to payment of incentive bonus both for hourly rated workers