Judgment

K. Ramaswamy, J. (Majority Judg­ment)—Leave granted.

2. These appeals by special leave arise from the judgment of the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court dated April 28, 1992 made in Appeal No. 146 of 1990 and batch. The facts in appeal arising out of S.L.P. 7417/92, are sufficient to decide the questions of law that have arisen in these appeals. The appellant initially was a statutory authority under International Airport Authority of India Act, 1971 (for short, “IAAI Act’) and on its repeal by the Airports Autho­rity of India Act, 1994 was amalgamated with National Airport Authority (for short, the ‘NAA’) under single nomenclature, namely, IAAI. The IAAI is now reconstituted as a company under Companies Act, 1956.

3. The appellants engaged, as contract labour, the respondent union’s members, for sweeping, cleaning, dusting and watching of the buildings owned and occupied by the appellant. The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (for short, the ‘Act’) regulates registration of the establishment of principal employer, the contractor engaging and supplying the contract labour in every establishment in which 20 or more workmen are employed on any day of th