# SAXBY AND FARMER. (INDIA l PVT. LTD v. THEIR WPRKMEN

- **Citation:** [1973] 3 S.C.R. 830
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1973-03-29
- **Bench:** Grover, C. A. Va!Dialanoam
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/saxby-and-farmer-india-l-pvt-ltd-v-their-wprkmen-5955
- **Pages:** 5

## Headnote

Lubour Law-Conipany producing
essential goodi for
ratlwaysWliether workmen entitled to unpaid festival holida,vs In addition to ren
paid holidays.
The appellant company was a unit of the Engineering Industry
in
West Bengal having three factories in varibus parts of Calcutta. It was
solely engaged in the production of brakes and signalling equipment for
the railways.
The Government of West Bengal declared the appellant to
be a public utility service in exercise of power conferred by s. 2(c) (vi-)
of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and also an 'essential service' under
the Defence of India Rules..
At the instance of the appellant company
the Government of West Bengal re
1ferred to the Industrial Tribunal the
question \Vhether the nine unpaid festival holidays allowed by the COIDw
pany to its workmen in addition to paid festival and other holidays should
be continued.
The Tribunal, impressed by the fact that unpaid festival
holid~ys had been enjoyed by the workmen for a long time gave its award
in fa,·nur of the workmen.
Allowing the company's appeal,
B
c
HELD : The Tribunal was whoijy oblivious of .the present day conditions and the necessity for increased
producti.on,
particularly,
in the
n1attcr of utility companies and the companij!s that are producing goods
E.
for essential services like those carried on by· the Indian Railways.
This
Court has observed on more than one occasion that it is generally accepted
that there .are too many public holidays in our country, and that when
_the need for industrial production is urgent and paramount, it may
be
advisable to reduce the nu.mber of such holidays in industrial concerns.
Indeed it cannot be disputed that a necessary step in the direction
of
increasing the country's productivity is the reduction
of
number
o·f
~~~.
F
Ther~ was accordingly no reason or justification for unpaid holidays
not being curtailed in the present case.
All the conditions which were
necessary had been satisfied and the appellant was carrying on the kind
of \vork which requires efficiency and increased productio:o. ![833E, 834AJ

## Text

830
SAXBY AND FARMER. (INDIA l PVT. LTD.
v.
THEIR WPRKMEN
March 29, 1973
(A. N, GROVER AND C. A. VA!DIALANOAM, JJ.]
Lubour Law-Conipany producing
essential goodi for
ratlwaysWliether workmen entitled to unpaid festival holida,vs In addition to ren
paid holidays.
The appellant company was a unit of the Engineering Industry
in
West Bengal having three factories in varibus parts of Calcutta. It was
solely engaged in the production of brakes and signalling equipment for
the railways.
The Government of West Bengal declared the appellant to
be a public utility service in exercise of power conferred by s. 2(c) (vi-)
of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and also an 'essential service' under
the Defence of India Rules..
At the instance of the appellant company
the Government of West Bengal re
1ferred to the Industrial Tribunal the
question \Vhether the nine unpaid festival holidays allowed by the COIDw
pany to its workmen in addition to paid festival and other holidays should
be continued.
The Tribunal, impressed by the fact that unpaid festival
holid~ys had been enjoyed by the workmen for a long time gave its award
in fa,·nur of the workmen.
Allowing the company's appeal,
B
c
HELD : The Tribunal was whoijy oblivious of .the present day conditions and the necessity for increased
producti.on,
particularly,
in the
n1attcr of utility companies and the companij!s that are producing goods
E.
for essential services like those carried on by· the Indian Railways.
This
Court has observed on more than one occasion that it is generally accepted
that there .are too many public holidays in our country, and that when
_the need for industrial production is urgent and paramount, it may
be
advisable to reduce the nu.mber of such holidays in industrial concerns.
Indeed it cannot be disputed that a necessary step in the direction
of
increasing the country's productivity is the reduction
of
number
o·f
~~~.
F
Ther~ was accordingly no reason or justification for unpaid holidays
not being curtailed in the present case.
All the conditions which were
necessary had been satisfied and the appellant was carrying on the kind
of \vork which requires efficiency and increased productio:o. ![833E, 834AJ
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 1923 of
!968.
G
Appeal by special leave from the Award dated March 11, 1968
of the VIIth Industrial Tribunal, West Bengal Calcutta in Case
No. VHI-287 of 1966 published in the Calcutta Gazette dated
April 18, 1968.
D. N. Mukherjee, for the appellant.
The respondent did not appear.
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SAXBY & PARMBR PVT. LTD, V; WORKMBN ( GrO\'tr, J.)
8 31
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by ,
GROVER, J.
This is a .. appeal by special leave from the award
of the Seventh Industrial Tribunal, West Bengal.
.
The appellant company is a unit of the Engineering Industry
in West Bengal having three Factories in various parts of Calcutta.
The company employs about 1650 workmen in all these factories.
According to the appellant, it is solely engaged in the production
of brakes and signalling equipment for the railways.
Its products, it is claimed, are essential for tile smooth working of the
railways, which are its sole customers.
In order to ensure smooth
production and uninterrupted flow of supply, the government of
West Bengal declared the appellant to be a public utility service
in exercise of the power conferred by sub-clause (vi) of clause (c)
of s. 2 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 194 7, and also as 'essential
service' under the De.fence of India Rules.
It is said as a unit
of engineering industry, the appellant was a party to certain omnibus major awards made in 1958 and the earlier awards of 1949
and 1950. Ln these awards, the service conditions, including leave
and holidays of the workmen were standardised.
The appellant
has been granted leave and holidays as per those awards and in
accordance with the provisions of the Factories Act, the Shops and
Establishment Act and the Employees State Insurance Act. The
paid holidays which are being granted are ten in a year.
There
used to be a system in the appellant company's establishment of
granting nine days unpaid festival holidays in addition to the paid
festival and other holidays.
It is pointed out that in no other
major industry in the region this system of unpaid festival holidays is being followed any longer.
At the instance of the appellant-company, the government of
F·
West Bengal referred the following issue by an order dated June 7,
1966 to the industrial tribunal for adjudication.
"Curtailment of unpaid festival holidays".
In the written statement, which was filed by the appellant, it was stated in para. 8 that
the company allows nine festival unpaid holidays, and the contiG
nuance of the said holidays would not only entail loss of wages to
the workmen but also Joss of production and would prejudicially
affect the country's economy. It was also asserted that the system
of granting unpaid holidays was no longer being followed in the
engineering industry.
Moreover, other holidays enjoyed by the!
workmen along with the workmen of other similar units were far
H
in excess of what prevails in other countries.
The union filed a written statement on behalf of the workmen.
In reply, the position taken- up was that the assertion of the com-
832
SUPRE11E COURT REPORTS
(1973] 3 S.C.R.
pany that the nine unpaid holidays should be discontinued, was
in clear disregard of the principle and practice followed so far in
the matter of giving benefits in the industrial concerns.
It was
said that the trend of the decisions of the Industrial Tribunals in
respect of major Engineering concerns has always been against the
curtailment of the existing facilities, and that the management of
the appellant-company had made an unfair attempt to curtail those
benefits, relating to unpaid festival holidays.
The main ground
given was that in the interest of industrial peace, production and
better relations between the workmen and the management, the
workmen should be kept contented.
Any attempt to curtail the
existing benefits according to time,honoured practice, would pro·
voke discontent and labour unrest.
Each side examined one witness, P.W. I, Gobind Day, who
appeared on behalf of the appellant, supported the assertions made
in the written statement filed on behalf of the appellant.
In other
words, he stated that 19 holidays were being given to the workers
at present, out of which ten were paid holidays and the rest, without pay.
Ten festival holidays were allowed on the basis of the
award made by the tribunals.
He admitted in his cross-examina·
tion that in Bengal holidays for certain days like Netaji's birthday
or for religious festivals, were considered very essential. O.P.W.!,
who appeared on behalt of the workers and who was the working
president of the Union at the time he gave evidence, merely con·
tented himself by saying that nine unpaid festival holidays had been
enjoyed by the workers since he joined the factory and prior to
that time.
According to him, even on festival holidays, 11·orkers
attended the factory and worked there and drew wages.
Overtime wages were paid at the rate of 150% of the basic wages.
The industrial tribunal does not appear to have given any substantial reasons for coming to the conclusion that the unpaid holidays should not be curtailed.
According to it, there was no evidence to show to what extent the Railways which were the sole
customers of the company, depended on the company to meet their
requirements.
The tribunal proceeded to say that the company
might be solely engaged in the production of signalling equipment,
but that was not sufficient to show the nature and extent of the
dependence of the Railways on the supplies of the company. The
representative of the company had argued that because the number
of the holidays was large, the production was suffering and the
company was unable to meet the demands of the Railways in
time.
The Tribunal, however, thought that in the absence of any
evidence to that effect, it could not be held that the production
was not adequate or was suffering because of the number of holiA
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SAXBY & FARMER PVT, LTD. v. WORKMEN (Grover,!.)
833
days for the workers.
This is how the Tribunal reasoned in the
matter:
" .... in my humble opinion without reducing the number of
important festival holidays of any community in India-which is
the home of different communities and religions the number of
working holidays can be increased as a compensatory measure by
converting a good many Sundays to working days.
I think this is
quite a feasible proposition and can be offered as a suggestion to
those who take the view that as festival and religious holidays are
quite large in number they should be reduced without reference
to the feelings of the affected religious group or community. But
then this is too wide and too large a question for my embarkation
and perhaps such views will not find favour with the west oriented
intellect and so-called cosmopolitan outlook.
Anyway, that I say
is that there is no good ground to cut down the number of festival
holidays simply because the number of overall holidays is large."
The tribunal appears to have been impressed by the contention
raised on behalf of the workmen that they had enjoyed the facilities
for a long time.
It appears that the tribunal was wholly oblivious of the present
day conditions and the necessity for increased production, particularly, in the matter of utility companies and the companies \hat
are producing goods for essential services like those carried on
by the Indi~n Railways. This Court has observed on m.ore than
one occasion that it is generally accepted that there are too many
public holidays in our country, and that when the need for industrial production, is urgent and paramount, it may be advisable
to reduce the number of such holidays in industrial concerns.
Indeed, it cannot be disputed that a necessary step in the direction
of increasing the country's productivity is the reduction of number of holidays.
See Pfizer (P) Ltd. Bombay v. The Workmen (1)
and Associated Cement Staff Union and another v.
Associated
Cement Company and others. (2 )
In Pfizer's case, the holidays
which were being granted were reduced lo ten .from the inumber
which the workers were enjoying previously in accordance with
those sanctioned under the Negotiable Instruments Act i.e., 16
holidays.
(l) [1963) Supp, 2 S. C.R. 627, 651.
(2l [1964) 1 L L.J. 12. 15.
, .. ,,
834
SUPRBME COURT REPORTS
[1973] 3 s.c.R.
On giving the matter careful consideration, we find no reason
or justification for unpaid holid11ys not being cllrtailed in the
present caso. All the conditions which are necessary have been
satisfied and the appellant is carrying on the kind of work which
requires efficiency and iqcreased production.
There should be
more concentration 011 increase of production and efficiency than
on enjoying the holidays if this country is to march ahead on the
road to prosperity. We would, accordingly, allow this appeal
and set aside the award. In other words, the system of unpaid
holidays will not continue with effect from the 1st January, 1973.
There will be no order as to costs.
G.C.
Appeal allowed.
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