Report No. 62

10.8. Present position-Second Schedule.-

For ascertaining the present position, the Second Schedule has to be consulted. The Schedule itself is a very long one, containing entries (i) to (xxxii). It would appear that the only items which can possibly be pressed into service in connection with agricultural employment, are items (iii) and (xxix) of the Schedule, quoted below1:-

"(iii) employed for the purpose of making, altering, repairing ornamenting, finishing or otherwise adapting for use, transport or sale any article or part of an article in any premises wherein or within the precincts whereof twenty or more persons are so employed;

(xxix) employed in farming by tractors or other contrivances driven by steam or other mechanical power or by electricity."

Item (iii), quoted above, cannot be applied to agricultural employment without straining the language. Item (xxix), quoted above, is confined to the actual process of 'farming', and, also requires the use of specified contrivances.

There is an item connected with tube-wells, which reads as follows2:-

"(xxx) employed, otherwise than in a clerical capacity in the construction, working repair or maintenance of a tube-well."

There are also specific items relating to coffee etc. and palm-trees. But all these are confined to specific processes. There is no item covering agricultural employment in general.

1. Second Schedule, items (iii) and (xxix).

2. Second Schedule, item 30.