The main legal point established in the judgment is that the inclusion of batta as part of the minimum rates of wages under the Minimum Wages Act was held to be ultra vires the powers of the State and void.

1. These are petitions presented by the proprietors of the Punchiri Boat Services Ltd., Alleppey, P.M. Abraham & Sons Boat Service, Alleppey, and the Indian Navigation Co., Alleppey, respectively under Art.226 of the Constitution of India challenging the following notification marked Ext. A issued by the State of Travancore-Cochin, (No. L.I.16322/53/DD dated 9th October 1954) fixing minimum wages for boat transport under the minimum Wages Act, 1948 (Central Act XI of 1948):

"LI.16322/53/DD. 9th October 1954.

In exercise of the powers conferred on them by Clause.(a) of Sub-s.1 of S. 6 read with Clause.(iii) of Sub-s. (1) of S. 4 of the Minimum Wages Act 1948 (Central Act XI of 1948) and after considering the advice of the Committee appointed under Clause.(a) of Sub-s. (1) of S. 5 of the said Act, Government hereby fix the minimum rates of wages, as specified in the schedule hereto annexed, which shall be payable to the classes of employees in the Public Motor Transport mentioned thereunder.

This notification shall come into force on and from 15.10.1954.

Table:#1 Table:#2

N.B. 1. Adolescents 80% of the corresponding daily wages in all the categories.

2. Public Motor Transport Workers (Road Transport) shall be eligible for overtime rates for all work done exceeding 9 hours in a day or 48 hours a week.

3. Public Boat Transport Workers shall be eligible for overtime rates for all works done exceeding 16 hours in a 48 hour period or exceeding 48 hours in a week.

By Order of His Highness the Raj Pramukh, K. Narayana Menon, Add. Secretary to Government".

The State is the first respondent in all the petitions. The other respondent in the second and third petitions who is the third and last respondent in the first is the Dist. Magistrate, Quilon, and the second respondent in the first petition is the District Magistrate, Kottayam, who are the authorities under the Act to investigate into the claims arising out of non-payment of the minimum wages fixed there-under. The Steam and Motor Boat Crew Association, a registered union of workmen employed in the boats plying in the backwaters, was allowed to intervene. The Notification fixes minimum wages under three heads, namely, basic pay, dearness allowance and batta. The petitioners challenge only the validity of the inclusion of batta as a part of minimum wages and it is attacked on two grounds, first that it is ultra vires the powers of the State under the Act, and secondly, that it offends Art.19(1)(g) of the Constitution as it is beyond the capacity of the employer to pay and its insistence would cripple and ultimately ruin the industry. In view of the decision of the Supreme Court in Bijaya Cotton Mills Ltd. v. State of Ajmeer (A.I.R. 1955 S.C. 33) - rendered on 14th October 1954 but not reported on the date of these applications, namely, 17th October 1954, the second point was not rightly pressed by petitioners' counsel in argument. Their Lordships held that it is in the interests of the general public that the labourers should be secured adequate living wages and that if individual employers might find it difficult to carry on the business on the basis of the minimum wages fixed under the Act it must be due entirely to the economic conditions of those particular employers and that cannot be a reason for striking down the law itself, despite its standing justified by Clause.(6) of Art.19, as unreasonable. The only point argued was the first and that concerns the question whether the State is entitled to enter over and above basic pay and dearness allowance, a third head, batta, to form a part of the minimum rate of wages under the Act.

2. The Minimum Wages Act, XI of 1948, owes its origin to the "Minimum Wages Fixing Machinery Convention" held at Geneva and its aim is to secure living wages to labourers in industries wherein sweated labour is prevalent with a chance of its exploitation. In the absence of an organisation for the effective regulation of wages such labour not being in a