Court case(1982) 3 SCC 235

Workers employed through contractors on the construction of stadia, flyovers and hotels for the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi were paid less than the statutory minimum wage, with jamadars pocketing part of it; women were paid less than men; children below fourteen were employed on the sites; and the labour laws on contract labour, inter-State migrant workers and equal remuneration were ignored. The People's Union for Democratic Rights wrote to Bhagwati J describing these conditions. The letter was treated as a writ petition under Article 32 against the Union, the Delhi Administration and the Delhi Development Authority.

Bhagwati J held that "forced labour" in Article 23 is not confined to physical or legal force. Where a person provides labour for less than the minimum wage, the law presumes that he is acting under the compulsion of hunger and poverty; such labour is "forced labour" and the State must act against it. The word "force" includes economic compulsion. Article 23 strikes at every form of forced labour, whether or not it is "begar", and is enforceable against private persons as well as the State. Article 24 likewise binds everyone, and construction work is hazardous employment in which children under fourteen cannot be employed, even though it was not then listed in the Employment of Children Act. Non-payment of minimum wages and non-observance of labour laws by the contractors was therefore a violation of Articles 23 and 24 and of Article 21, and the Union and the Delhi Administration, as principal employers, were liable for it. The letter petition was held maintainable.