Court : Supreme Court of India
Reportable IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION SU O MOT U WRI T PETITIO N (CIVIL ) No.6 O F2020IN RE: PROBLEMS AND MISERIES OF MIGRANT LABOURERS With Writ Petition (C) No.916 of 2020 Bandhua Mukti Morcha Petitioner Versus Union of India & Ors. Respondents JUDGMENT Ashok Bhushan, J.1. The Worldwide Pandemic COVID-19 engulfed this country in March, 2020 and continues till date changing its face from time to time. Different mutations in the virus have made it dangerous and fatal at times. The pandemic had affected each and every person in the world including all citizens of this country. The pandemic has adversely affected all businesses 1 including the small scale businesses, industries, markets and smallest of the person.2. One of the groups, which were severally affected by the pandemic, was the migrant labouers. When Nationwide Lockdown was declared on 24.03.2020, after few days, there was huge exodus of the migrant labourers from their place of work to their na...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1950SC27; 1950CriLJ1383; (1950)IIMLJ42(SC); [1950]1SCR88
1. This is a petition by the applicant under article 32(1) of the Constitution of India for a writ of habeas corpus against his detention in the Madras Jail. In the petition he has given various dates showing how he has been under detention since December, 1947. Under the ordinary Criminal Law he was sentenced to terms of imprisonment but those convictions were set aside. While he was thus under detention under one of the orders of the Madras State Government, on the 1st of March, 1950, he was served with an order made under section 3(1) of the Preventive Detention Act, IV of 1950. He challenges the legality of the order as it is contended that Act IV of 1950 contravenes the provisions of articles 13, 19 and 21 and the provisions of that Act are not in accordance with article 22 of the Constitution. He has also challenged the validity of the order on the ground that it is issued mala fide. The burden of proving that allegation is on the applicant. Because of the penal provisions of sec...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : [1951]2SCR747
Kania, C.J. 1. This is a reference made by the President of India under article 143 of the Constitution asking the Court's opinion on the three questions submitted for its consideration and report. The three questions are as follows :- '(1) Was section 7 of the Delhi Laws Act, 1912, or any of the provisions thereof and in what particular or particulars or to what extent ultra vires the Legislature which passed the said Act ?' 2. Section 7 of the Delhi Laws Act, mentioned in the question, runs as follows :- 'The Provincial Government may, by notification in the official gazette, extend with such restrictions and modifications as it thinks fit to the Province of Delhi or any part thereof, any enactment which is in force in any part of British India at the date of such notification.' '(2) Was the Ajmer-Merwara (Extension of Laws) Act, 1947, or any of the provisions thereof and in what particular or particulars or to what extent ultra vires the Legislature which passed the said Act ?' 3. S...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1958SC578; (1961)ILLJ339SC; (1964)ILLJ9SC; [1959]1SCR12
Bhagwati, J.1. These petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution raise the question as to the vires of the Working Journalists (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955), hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' and the decision of the Wage Board constituted thereunder. As they raise common questions of law and fact they can be dealt with under one common judgment. 2. In order to appreciate the rival contentions of the parties it will be helpful to trace the history of the events which led to the enactment of the impugned Act. 3. The newspaper industry in India did not originally start as an industry, but started as individual newspapers founded by leaders in the national, political, social and economic fields. During the last half a century, however, it developed characteristics of a profit making industry in which big industrialists invested money and combines controlling several newspapers all over the country also became the special feature of this deve...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1958SC560; (1958)IIMLJ66(SC); [1959]1SCR379; [1958]9STC353(SC)
Venkatarama Aiyar, J.1. This appeal arises out of proceedings for assessment of sales-tax payable by the respondents for the year 1949-1950, and it raises a question of considerable importance on the construction of Entry 48 in List II of Sch. VII to the Government of India Act, 1935, 'Taxes on the sale of goods.' 2. The respondents are a private limited company registered under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, doing business in the construction of buildings, roads and other works and in the sale of sanitary wares and other sundry goods. Before the sales-tax authorities, the disputes ranged over a number of items, but we are concerned in this appeal with only two of them. One is with reference to a sum of Rs. 29,51,528-7-4 representing the value of the materials used by the respondents in the execution of their works contracts, calculated in accordance with the statutory provisions applicable thereto, and the other relates to a sum of Rs. 1,98,929-0-3 being the price of food...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1958SC731; [1959]1SCR629
Das, C.J. 1. These 12 petitions under Art. 32 of our Constitution raise the question of the constitutional validity of three several legislative enactments banning the slaughter of certain animals passed by the States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh respectively. The controversy concerning the slaughter of cows has been raging in this country for a number of years and in the past it generated considerable ill will amongst the two major communities resulting even in riots and civil commotion in some places. We are, however, happy to note that the rival contentions of the parties to these proceedings have been urged before us without importing into them the heat of communal passion and in a rational and objective way, as a matter involving constitutional issues should be. Some of these petitions come from Bihar, some from U.P. and the rest from Madhya Pradesh, but as they raise common questions of law, it will be convenient to deal with and dispose of them together by one comm...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1960SC675; (1960)ILLJ523SC
Subba Rao, J.1. This batch of three connected appeals raises the question whether and to what extent the activities of the Corporation of the City of Nagpur come under the definition of 'industry' in s. 2(14) of the C.P. & Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act, 1947 (hereinafter called the Act). 2. The appellant is the corporation of the City of Nagpur constituted under the City of Nagpur Corporation Act, 1948 (Madhya Pradesh Act No. 2 of 1950). Disputes arose between the corporation and the employees in various departments of the corporation in respect of wage scales, gratuity, provident fund, house rent, confirmation, allowances etc. The Government of the State of Madhya Pradesh by its order dated October 23, 1956, referred the said disputes under s. 39 of the Act to the state industrial Court, Nagpur and the reference was numbered as Industrial Reference No. 18 of 1956. The appellant filed a state October 23, 1956, referred the said disputes under s. 39 of the Act to the State In...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1961SC838; [1961(3)FLR241]; (1961)IILLJ146SC; [1962]1SCR9
Das Gupta, J.1. On February 5, 1955, there was a tragic accident in the Amlabad Colliery, in Manbhum District, in the State of Bihar, as a result of which 52 persons lost their lives and one escaped with injuries. The court of enquiry which was appointed to hold an inquiry into the causes of the accident and the circumstances attending the accident submitted its report on September 26, 1955, holding that the accident was due to negligence and non-observance of some of the regulations of the Indian Coal Mines Regulations, 1926. This report was duly published under s. 27 of the Mines Act, 1952. Thereafter, on March 3, 1956, the Government of India informed the manager and the agent of the colliery that a court of enquiry was being constituted under clause (a) of the Regulation 48 to hold an inquiry into their conduct. Criminal proceedings were also instituted against 14 persons including the manager and the agent of the colliery, all the directors of the company which was the owner of th...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : [1963]1SCR778; [1963]Supp2SCR778
Venkatarama Aiyar, J. 1. The petitioner is a partner in a firm called Messrs. Mohan Lal Hargovind Das, which carries on business in the manufacture and sale of biris in number of States, and is dealer registered under the U.P. Sales Tax Act 15 of 1948 with its head office at Allahabad. In the present petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the petitioner impugns the validity of a levy of sales tax made by the Sales Tax Officer, Allahabad, by his order dated December 20, 1958. 2. On December 14, 1957, the Government of Uttar Pradesh issued a notification under section 4(1)(b) of the Act exempting from tax, sales of certain goods including biris, provided that the additional Central Excise duties leviable thereon had been paid. In partial modification of this notification, the Government issued another notification on November 25, 1958, exempting from tax unconditionally sales of biris, both machinemade and handmade, with effect from July 1, 1958. The effect of the two notif...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1962SC204; 1983LC2183D(SC); [1962]3SCR108
Hidayatullah, J.1. These writ petitions raise identical questions, and a common argument was addressed to the Court in all of them. Petitions Nos. 80 and 80A of 1960 have been filed by two petitioners. One petitioner holds a 'permanent' licence and the other, a 'temporary' licence renewable trienially, to work as Dalals at New Customs House, Bombay. In the other petitions also petitioners Nos. 1 to 50 hold permanent licences, and petitioners Nos. 51 to 99 hold temporary but renewable licences. Some of the permanent licences were issued in 1936, and some of the temporary licences were issued as far back as 1944. These licences, whether permanent or temporary, were issued under section 202 of the Sea Customs Act, 1978, prior to its amendment by the Sea Customs (Amendment) Act, 1955 (Act 21 of 1955). They were issued after a brief enquiry and subject to the fulfilment by the applicant of the following conditions : ' (1) He must produce at least 2 certificates of character each from a Just...
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