Bonus entitlement must follow the statutory scheme; excluded or exempted establishments cannot claim bonus under general industrial law.

The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 was treated as a complete statutory scheme governing entitlement to bonus, computation, and the classes of establishments to which it applies or from which it is excluded. Section 1(3) limits coverage, and section 32 creates express exemptions for specified establishments, indicating that excluded or exempted employers cannot claim bonus outside the Act through the Industrial Disputes Act or corresponding law. Section 39 was read as procedural only, preserving the adjudicatory machinery of that law for disputes arising under the Act, not as an independent source of bonus entitlement. The statutory exclusions and exemptions were therefore given full effect, and the appeals succeeded.

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Issues: Whether the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 constituted a comprehensive and exhaustive code governing the entitlement to bonus, so that establishments excluded by section 1(3) or exempted under section 32 could still claim bonus dehors the Act under the Industrial Disputes Act or other corresponding law.

Analysis: The statutory scheme, the history of the legislation, and the recommendations of the Bonus Commission showed that Parliament intended to replace the earlier judge-made bonus formula with a statutory scheme laying down who would be entitled to bonus, how it would be computed, and in what cases the Act would not apply. Section 1(3) limited the Act to factories and to other establishments employing 20 or more persons, while section 32 expressly exempted specified classes of establishments for policy reasons. Section 39 did not preserve an independent right to bonus under the Industrial Disputes Act; it merely made the machinery of that law available for adjudicating disputes arising under the Act, because the Act itself did not create a separate procedure for dispute resolution. Accepting the contrary view would frustrate the express exclusions and exemptions built into the Act and would undermine the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: The Act was held to be exhaustive on the subject of bonus. Establishments excluded from or exempted under the Act could not bonus dehors the Act under the Industrial Disputes Act or corresponding laws. The appeals succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a later statute creates a complete statutory scheme for a subject, including express exclusions and exemptions, those excluded or exempted cannot fall back upon an earlier general industrial adjudication regime to claim the same benefit unless the statute expressly saves that right.

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