The issues involved in these matters being closely

interlinked, they are disposed of by this common judgment.

The Exthibits are referred to in the judgment as they appear in

W.P.(C) No.25887 of 2019.

2. The Government of Kerala has established an

agricultural urban wholesale market (the market) at Nettoor in

Ernakulam District, during 1992. The market was exempted

from the provisions of the Kerala Headload Workers Act, 1978

(the Act) by virtue of a notification under the Kerala Loading

and Unloading (Regulation of Wages and Restriction of Unlawful

Practices) Act, 2002. As such, though the market is located in

an area notified for implementation of the Kerala Headload

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Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Scheme,1983

(the Scheme), its functional operation was not extended to the

market and the loading and unloading works in the

establishments inside the market were being carried out by the

workers engaged by the establishments themselves. The

Kerala Loading and Unloading (Regulation of Wages and

Restriction of Unlawful Practices) Act, 2002 was repealed in

terms of the Kerala Headload Workers (Amendment) Act, 2008.

When the benefit of exemption from the provi