The City Compensatory Allowance is considered part of wages under the Payment of Bonus Act, and the employer is obligated to pay the minimum bonus of 8.33% to every employee.

The short point that arises for consideration in this writ petition wherein the petitioner Transport Corporation has chosen to challenge the order of the first respondent- Labour Court dated 30.12.1994 made in C.P.Nos. 160 to 181 of 1992 is as to whether the non-inclusion of City Compensatory Allowance while calculating the wages of the respondent Nos. 2 to 915 for the purpose of payment of minimum bonus of 8.33% for the years 1986-87,1987-88,1988-89 and 1989-90 was justified.

2. As far as the legal position as to whether the City Compensatory Allowance should be taken as part of wages under the Payment of Bonus Act is concerned,it is not in dispute that it would form part of wages. It is also not in dispute that in the case on hand, the petitioner Corporation did not include the City Compensatory Allowance while calculating the wages of respondent Nos. 2 to 915 and while calculating their minimum bonus of 8.33% for the above stated years. The petitioner contended before the first respondent that for the relevant years, apart from the minimum bonus of 8.33% , the respondent Nos. 2 to 915 were also paid a definite sum by way of Exgratia and that whatever was left out by not taking into account, the City Compensatory Allowance,having been substantially compensated by payment of Exgratia,the non-inclusion of the City Compensatory Allowance in the payment of minimum bonus of 8.33% by itself would not entitle respondent Nos. 2 to 915 for making a separate claim on the City Compensatory Allowance paid to them for the relevant years. The first respondent/Labour Court rejected the stand of the petitioner and proceeded to compute the relevant claim of respondent Nos. 2 to 915 by the order impugned in this writ petition.

3. Section 2(21) of the Payment of Bonus Act 1965 defines"Salary or Wage" to mean all remuneration (other than remuneration in respect of overtime work)capable of being expressed in terms of money that would become payable, if the terms of employment, express or implied were fulfilled and it would include the dearness allowance. Sub Clauses i to vii of Section 2(21) mention such of those items which are to be excluded under the definition of "Salary or wage". Interpreting the said provision, it has been held that City Compensatory Allowance is part of wages as defined under the main clause of Section 2(21). The question is settled by the Honourable Supreme Court in the Judgment reported in S.KRISHNAMURTHY -VS- THE PRESIDING OFFICER,CENTRAL GOVT.LABOUR COURT,MADRAS AND ANOTHER(1986(1)LLJ 133) . Section 10 of the Act prescribes that every employer is mandatorily bound to pay to every employee in respect of an accounting year a minimum bonus of 8.33% of the salary or wage earned by the employee during that accounting year,irrespective of whether the employer has any allocable surplus or not in the relevant accounting year. Therefore, as far as the minimum bonus of 8.33% is concerned, there is a statutory obligation cast upon the employer to discharge the said liability in respect of each accounting year. When that be so,the non-inclusion of the City Compensatory Allowance by the petitioner while calculating the minimum bonus of 8.33% in respect of respondent Nos. 2 to 915 was directly in violation of the provisions of Payment of Bonus Act. Even under Section 31A of the Payment of Bonus Act ,if there is any contract between the employer and the employee for payment of bonus linked with production or productivity in lieu of the bonus based on profits payable under the Act the said provision makes it clear that in the event of any such agreement providing for relinquishment of right of the employees to receive the minimum bonus under Section 10 would be null and void in so far as it purports to deprive them of such right. Therefore, even under the provisions of the Act, there is no scope for depriving an employee of the payment of the minimum bonus payable to an employee by virtue of operation of Section 10 of the P