JUDGMENT :

A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar., J.

The Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board is the appellant herein, aggrieved by the judgment dated 6.10.2021 of the learned Single Judge in W.P.(C).No.11601/2021. The brief facts necessary for disposal of the Writ Appeal are as follows :

The writ petitioner is the proprietor of MAB Vegetables, Onion and Potato Merchants in Muvattupuzha, an establishment dealing with wholesale marketing of onions and potatoes. He had approached the writ court aggrieved by the rejection of an application, preferred by him in respect of nine regular workers attached to his establishment, for registration in terms of Rule 26A of the Kerala Headload Workers Rules, 1981 [hereinafter referred to as the “Rules”]. Initially, applications were preferred in respect of four persons [Exts.P1 to P4] on 23.11.2020, and thereafter, in respect of a further five persons [Exts.P5 to P9] on 2.12.2020. It was the specific case of the petitioner that the persons, in respect of whom he had preferred applications for registration as Headload workers, were employed by him in his establishment, and that, notwithstanding the said fact, the Assistant Labour Officer, at first instance, an