Holding

The Court held that all States and Union Territories must promptly take steps to implement the Act, and may adopt the Delhi Rules as a model where they have not framed their own rules.

Summary

The Supreme Court heard a writ petition filed by the National Campaign Committee, C.L. Labour, alleging that several State Governments and Union Territories had failed to implement the provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. The petition highlighted non‑compliance in appointing registering officers, constituting welfare boards, collecting the statutory cess and extending benefits to construction workers. The Court examined the statutory duties under Sections 6, 7, 22 and 62 of the Act and noted that Delhi had already framed detailed Rules in 2002 which could serve as a model. It directed the Chief Secretaries and Labour Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to take immediate steps to comply with the Act, including framing rules where absent, and to submit an appraisal report in the first week of May 2009. The order aimed to ensure that the benefits intended for unorganized construction workers are not wasted.

Issues considered

Whether State Governments and Union Territories are obligated to implement the provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.
Whether the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Rules, 2002 can be adopted as a model by other States for compliance.
What specific steps must be taken by the States to fulfill their statutory duties under the Act.

Legislation cited

Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996s. 22, s. 6, s. 62, s. 7

Subjects

Labour lawConstruction workersWelfare boardCess collectionState complianceRule makingSupreme Court direction

Judgment

[2009] 2 S:C.R. 978

A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMTT.,C.L.LABOUR
v
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
..
Writ Petition(c) No.318 of 2006
JANUARY 13, 2009
B
-
(K.G. BALAKRISHNAN,CJI, P. SATHASIVAM AND J.M.
PANCHAL, JJ)
- ·Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of ('
Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996:
c
Compliance with provisions of the Act- Chief Secretaries
and Secretaries (Labour) of States and Union Territories
directed to take timely steps as per provisions of the Act - Delhi
Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of
D Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2002 may be
taken as a model for the purpose of the Act - Appraisal report ,..
to be submitted to Court in first week of May, 2009.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition(c) No.318
of 2006
E
UNDERARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
Manjit Singh AAG, Haryana (for T.V. George), Amarendra
Sharan, ASG., Colin Gonsalves, Alban toppo, Jyoti Mendiratta,
AmitAnand Tiwari, S.N.Terdal, Riku Sharma, M. Dutta, (for M/S
F Corporate law Group), Arun K. Sinha, Anil k. Jha, Manoranjan
Kumar Jha, S.M. Imam, TarbezAhmad, Anis Suhrawardy, Gopal
Singh, Manish Kumar, Rituraj Biswas, Hemantika Wahi, Momta
Tushir, Kamini Jaiswal, Naresh K. Sharma, A. Subhashini,
Radha Ranqaswamy, K.N. Madhusoodhana, R. Sathish, Shrish
G Kumar Mishra, Tara Chandra Sharma, Neelam Sharma, Aruna
·Mathur, P. Parameshwaran, (for M/S Arputham, Aruna & Co.),
Sunita Sharma, D.S. Mahra, Ranjan Mukherjee, D. Bharathi
Reddy, B.S. Banthia, Khwairakpam Nobin Singh, Radha Shyam
Jena, Nandini Gore, Anil -Shrivastav, Sanjay V. Kharde, Asha
H 978
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMTT.,C.L.LABOUR V. 979
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Gopalan Nair, Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, Edward Belho, Rituraj A
~
Biswas, R. Nedumaran, P. Soma Sundaram, V.G. Praqasam,
S.L. Aristotle, Prabhu Rama Subramanian, with them for the
appearing parties.
The Order of the Court was delivered by
B
K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, CJI,
The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation
of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 (for short
'The Act'), was passed by the Parliament and in this writ petition
it is alleged that many of the provisions of the enactment are not c
put in practice and the respective authorities have not complied
with tpe statutory provisions. All the State Governments and Union
territories are impleaded as parties in this writ petition. The Act
is intended to benefit the unorganized workers in the construction
sector. Under Section 6 of the Act, the appropriate Government D
has to appoint registering· officers and under Section 7 of the
Act every employer shall register their establishment. The
building workers are given various benefits and in order to
enable the wor~ers to avail the benefits, each State has to
constitute a State Welfare Board. The Board shall consist of a
Chairman nominated by the Central Government, and such other E
Members, not exceeding 15, as may be appointed by the State
Government. The Board shall appoint a Secretary as its Chief
Executive Officer.
~
'
Under Section 22 of the Act, the Board may provide
F
immediate assistance to the.beneficiaries in case of accident,
' and also pay. compensation to those workers who had
cempleted the age of.sixty years. The Board may also sanction
loans and advances to the beneficiaries and also to give finandal
assistance for the education of children of the beneficiaries and
also to give the benefit of group insurance schemes. The Board G
can also grant maternity benefit to the female beneficiaries. A
construction welfare fund has to be constituted and there are
other provisions also to· regulate the conditions of service of
construction workers. There are also provisions to take care of
... the s~fety and health conditions of the workers. in order to H
980 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2009] 2 .S.C.R.

A implement. the provisions there .shall be inspecting staff and
certain penal provisions are also in the Act to punish those who
......
act in violation of the .provisions of enactment. . \:,.
The Parliament has also passed the Building and· Other
Construction Workers Welfare Gess Act; 199.6 for the purpose
B of levy and collection of cess and Section 3 of the Act envisages
that- there shall be levied and collected a cess for the purposes
·of the Building and Other Con'structiori Workers (Regulation of
.. Employment an.d Conditions of Ser\tice)Act, 1996, at slich rate ,,, '
not exceeding two percent; but not less. than one per cent of the '
C cost of construction incurred by an employer, as the Central
Government may specify for him to time. Section 62 of the
Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Gess Act says
· that proper Rules are to be framed by the Government after
.consultation with the expert committee.
D
The learned counsel appearing for the writ petitioners filed
a chart b'efore us indleating ttie steps· that had been taken by
·the variou·s state governments.· It says 'that many of the
governments had nott.aken steps as. per the provisions of the
E. Act. Though some of the state govern~ents have collected cess
· but the benefits have not been fully passed on to the· construction
·workers. Some of the State governments bave not constituted
·either the State.Atjvisory Committee or the expert committee or
the W.elfare Board as envi~aged :under the Act. The Delhi
Government has framed detailed Rules, namely, the Delhi
F ; Building. and .Other Co11$truction Workers (Re.guJation of
. Employment and Conditions .of. Service) Rules, 2002. These
. Rules exclusively deal with the. matter and gives various mod~t
forms also for compliance·of th.e provisions of the Act.The State
Governments and Union Territories which have not framed .the
G rules as per Section 62 of the P.,ct can very well take the Delhi
Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of
Employment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2002, as a model
and the same can be adopted for the purpose of this Act. Copy
of the same is available on internet and the same can be had
H from the Government of Delhi.
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMTT.,C.L.LABOUR V. . 981
UNION OF !NOIA & ORS. [K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, CJI,]

We direct the Chief Secretary of the respective States and A
Secretary (Labour) of each States and the Union Territories to
take timely steps as per the provisions of the Act, if not already
done: We would like to have the appraisal report in the fir~tweek
of May as to what steps have been taken in this regard. If any of
the State Government has not done anything pursuant to the . B
Act, urgent steps are to .be taken. so that the benefits of_ this .
legislation shall not go waste. Otherwise the unorganized
workers of the construction sector will be denied the benefit of
the Act.
Post in the 1st week of May, 2009. c
A copy of the order be sent to the Chief Secretary of all the
States and Secretary (Labour) of each State and the Union
Territories for taking further action in this regard.

R.P. Ma.tter adjourned ...

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