Art. 39 (b) & (c)of the Indian Constitution says,
“The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing—….
- (b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
- (c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment;”
Existing benefits under the ESI Act are under threat because of the Subordinate Legislation for which power is being sought in the present Labour Code.
Subordinate Legislation is secretive.
A legislation cannot leave it to the Executive to correct the situation which produces unexpected consequences. Hon’ble Supreme Court has said, “Unlike Parliamentary legislation which is publicly made, delegated legislation or subordinate legislation is often made unobtrusively in the chambers of a minister, a secretary to the Governor or other official dignitary.” (ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Vs. Mandal Revenue Officer 1996 (6) SCC 634 and Harla Vs. State of Rajasthan AIR 1951 SC 467 and B.K. Srinivasan Vs. State of Karnataka AIR 1987 SC 1059). B
ut, the Drafting Team does not know of these niceties and the authorities also do not care.
The Supreme Court of India has in
Samatha Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (1997) 8 SCC 191 (Para 75) observed,
“The core constitutional objective of ‘social and economic democracy’ in other words, just social order, cannot be established without removing the inequalities in income and making endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status through the rule of law. The mandate for social and economic retransformation requires that the material resources or their ownership and control should be so distributed as to subserve the common good.
A relatively small Powerpoint presentation on the core issues of the Labour Code 2019 is in the following link;
Flourishing ESIC 