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1966 DIGILAW 330 (KER)

IN Re KERALA WATER TRANSPORT CORPORATION LTD v. .

1966-11-24

P.T.RAMAN NAYAR

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Judgment :- 1. The sanction sought in Para.4 of the report is accorded.. 2. The company that is being wound up is a Government company as defined in S.617 of the Companies Act. Its business of running water transport services was being continued by the liquidator under S.457 (1)(b) of that Act. The winding up order did not put an end to the company that is yet to be done by an order of dissolution-and there can be no doubt that, the winding up order notwithstanding, the business is an establishment owned by a Government company and therefore an "establishment in public sector" as defined by S.2 (16) of Central Act 21 of 1965 (the Act for short). It is not disputed that the bonus the liquidator proposes to pay the employees of the establishment is in accord with what is payable under S.10 of the Act; the contention is that the section itself does not apply by reason of S.32 (x) which says that nothing in the Act shall apply to employees employed by any establishment in public sector save as otherwise provided under the Act. But the Act does, by S.20(1), otherwise provide the "under" of S.32. (ix) must be read as "by or under" for undisputedly there are establishments is private sector carrying goods and passengers between the same places as this establishment was carrying them: Therefore the establishment was rendering services in competition with establishments in private sector and it is not denied that its entire income, whatever it was, was from such services. That the establishments in private sector were, at any rate so far as passenger services were concerned, road transport services, does not make the water transport services of the establishment any the less competing services. The test of competition between two persons in the supply whether of goods or services is not whether the goods or services supplied are of the very same description, but whether the custom of the one can be attracted by the other. The sale of coffee can very well be in competition with the sale of tea and I have no doubt that all transport services carrying the same kind of traffic between the same places, whether by rail, air, road or water run in competition with one another. The sale of coffee can very well be in competition with the sale of tea and I have no doubt that all transport services carrying the same kind of traffic between the same places, whether by rail, air, road or water run in competition with one another. Persons or goods which would otherwise have been transported by the establishments in private sector were undoubtedly being transported by this establishment and it seems to me beyond doubt that this establishment was rendering services in competition with those. For these reasons the objections taken by the State Government and other creditors of the company are rejected.