The main legal point established in the judgment is that the State has the power to fix minimum wages for apprentices under the Minimum Wages Act, and the procedure for fixing the minimum wages must be followed.

These three appeals arise out of a common judgment and order dated 30th April, 2009 whereby a learned single Judge of this Court dismissed the writ petitions filed by the appellants herein challenging the notification dated 7th November, 2008 issued by the Labour and Employment Department of the first respondent/State of Tamil Nadu fixing the minimum wages for the apprentices engaged in the employment in Textile Mills including Composite Mills, Spinning Mills, Weaving Mills, Open Ended Mills and the various processes in the above mills at the rate of Rs.110/- per day, apart from the Dearness Allowance, as laid down in the said notification. The notification is stated to have come into force with effect from the date of publication thereof in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 7th November, 2008.

2. The appellant in W.A.No.957 of 2009 i.e., The Southern India Mills’ Association had filed two writ petitions before the learned single Judge. One was W.P.No.28782 of 2008, which challenged the aforesaid notification. The other was W.P.No.28783 of 2008 challenging the vires of this notification. The challenge to the vires was repelled by the learned single Judge and that challenge is not re-canvassed before us by filing any appeal.

3. The appellant in W.A.No.992 of 2009 i.e., The Southern India Small Spinners’ Association, Coimbatore, and the appellant in W.A.No.993 of 2009 i.e., The Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association, Dindigul had filed W.P.Nos.28805 of 2008 and 28741 of 2008 respectively for the very same purpose i.e., challenging the aforesaid notification. As stated above, all these petitions are rejected by the impugned common judgment.

4. There was no stay of this notification during the pendency of the writ petitions nor has there been any stay during the pendency of these appeals. With the consent of the parties, the appeals have been heard finally at the admission stage itself.

5. Some of the facts leading to these appeals are as follows:-

(i) A scheme appears to have been developed during last few years by some of the textile mills in the State of Tamil Nadu, under which un-married young girls are engaged as apprentices for a period of about three years, and at the end of that tenure they are paid a certain lumpsum amount to meet their marriage expenses. This scheme is conducted under various names, one of which being “Sumangali Marriage Scheme”.

The submission of the workers’ unions appears to be that this is an exploitative scheme and that there have been cases of sexual harassment as well. As against that, it has been the refrain of the mill-owners that this is a good scheme for the benefit of the unmarried young girls.

.(ii) The fact, however, appears that in view of the representations of the Federation of the State Textile Workers, the State Government issued a preliminary notification on 8th August, 2006 for inclusion in Part-I of the Schedule to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (for short ‘the Act’), the employment in Textile Mills including Composite Mills, Spinning Mills, Weaving Mills, Open Ended Mills and the various processes in the above said Mills like Blow Room, Carding, Drawing, Fly Frames, Spinning, Winding, Doubling, Reeling, Packing, Warping-sizing and other processes in the Textile Mills whether carried out singly or together.

(iii) Objections were invited to this notification. They were considered and subsequently, the preliminary notification was confirmed without any modification by the Labour and Employment (J2) Department in its G.O.Ms.No.1 dated 3rd January, 2007. Accordingly, the notification was published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette including employment in Textile Mills at Sl.No.88 in Part-I of the Schedule to the Act by way of an amendment thereto. This was in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 27 of the Act. It is material to note that the Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association challenged this addition of employment in Textile Mills by fil