The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 is constitutional and does not violate any of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The authorities appointed under the Act have the competence to deal with disputes arising under the Act. Gratuity should be calculated at the rate of 15 days' wages for every completed year of service. Continuous service includes periods of absence due to sickness, accident, leave, lay-off, strike, or cessation of work not due to the fault of the employee. The Act applies to all employees covered by the definition of 'employee' under the Act, regardless of the size or nature of the establishment.

NATARAJAN, J.

These writ petitions have been clubbed together and posted before us for disposal by a common order since all of them relate to proceedings under the payment of Gratuity Act (No. 39 of 1972), hereinafter referred to as the Act. Most of the petitions have been filed by the Managements of various companies, while the rest of them have been filed by the employees. Since the facts differ in the various batches of cases, we shall deal separately with each batch, and wherever necessary, common questions of law will be dealt with collectively.

2. The first batch of cases, viz, Writ Petition Nos. 1551, to 1553, 1590 to 1598 and 635, of 1976, 2028, 2058, 2073, 2168 and 2170 to 2172 of 1978, 2451 to 2454 of 1978, 2469 to 2471 of 1978, 2570, 2662, to 2665 of 1978, 4136 of 1978, 26 and 614 of 1979, 1732, 1959, 2005 to 2008, 2085, 2122, 2134, 2135, 2171 to 2175, 2412, 2427, 3156 to 3158, 3163 to 3165, 3166, 3567, to 3571, 3972, 4022 to 4029, 4053 to 4058, 4252 to 4255, 4257 to 4259, 4331, 4339, and 4408 to 4414 of 1988, have been filed by Messrs. Jeevanlal Limited. In all these cases, the concerned employee has been impleaded as the first respondent, the Controlling authority and the Appellate Authority under the Act have been impleaded respectively as respondents 2 and 3, the Workers' Union in which the concerned employee is a member as the fourth respondent, the Union of India represented by the Secretary, Ministry of Labour as the fifth respondent and the workers' union belonging to another concern run by the petitioner management as the sixth respondent.

3. These petitions have been filed for quashing the orders passed by the third respondent in the respective appeals filed by the petitioner against the concerned employee shown as the first respondent in each of the petitioner, by the issue of a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate writ or direction or order as may be deemed fit and necessary.

4. The impugned orders came to be passed in the following circumstances. In all these cases, the employees retired from the service of the petitioner between the years 1979 and 1980. They claimed payment of gratuity in accordance with the provisions of the Act which came into force on 16th September; 1972. The petitioner management took the stand that in so far as the services rendered by the employees prior to the Act coming on into force are concerned, the employees can claim gratuity only in accordance with the scheme or award that governed the rights of parties and that the Act would not cover the period of service prior to its coming into force on 16-9-1972 for the purpose of payment of gratuity under S. 4. The employees then approached the Controlling Authority and the said Authority overruled the contentions of the petitioner and ordered payment of gratuity as claimed by the employees. The petitioner - management filed appeals to the Appellate Authority, but without success. It is against those orders of the Authorities below, the writ petitions have been filed. In all the writ petitions, the constitutional validity of the Act is questioned. In addition except in Writ Petitions Nos. 1551 to 1553 and 1590 to 1597 of 1976, in the other cases an additional objection has also been raised about the competence of the second and third respondents to deal with the dispute or to pass the impugned orders, since, according to the petitioner, the appropriate Government to deal with the matter is the Central Government and not the State Government.

5. Messrs. Jeevanlal Limited is a public limited company, incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling household utensils and other articles made out of aluminum metal. The company is an all-India concern and has its registered head-office at Calcutta and branch offices and factories at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras and sales offices at Delhi, Hyderabad and Cochin. The company has employed 1300 workmen in its offices a