Customary bonus survives statutory bonus amendments where the law covers profit or productivity-linked bonus only.

Customary bonus was held to remain outside the statutory bonus scheme after the 1976 amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act. The Act continued to govern profit-based and, after amendment, production or productivity-linked bonus, while customary bonus rested on long usage and not on statutory profit orientation. Section 17, which still referred to puja bonus and other customary bonus, indicated that such claims were preserved. Section 31A was confined to productivity-linked bonus in lieu of profit bonus, and section 34 did not override a separate customary bonus claim because no inconsistency existed.

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Issues: Whether customary bonus survived the amendments made to the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 by Act 23 of 1976, and whether the amended provisions, particularly sections 31A and 34, displaced liability to pay customary bonus.

Analysis: The Act, both before and after the 1976 amendment, was held to be confined to bonus linked with profits, and after amendment also bonus linked with production or productivity. Customary bonus was treated as a separate category founded on long usage and not on the profit-oriented scheme of the Act. Section 17, which expressly refers to puja bonus and other customary bonus, remained unamended and indicated that customary bonus continued to stand outside the statutory scheme. Section 31A was confined to productivity-linked bonus in lieu of profit bonus and did not extend to customary bonus. Section 34, though giving overriding effect to the Act and inconsistent agreements, could not operate against customary bonus because there was no inconsistency between a statute dealing with profit or productivity bonus and a claim founded on custom.

Conclusion: Customary bonus was not abolished or impaired by the 1976 amendment, and the management remained liable to honour the customary bonus claim.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the amended Bonus Act did not override the workmen's right to customary bonus, which continued to operate in a field distinct from statutory bonus.

Ratio Decidendi: A statute governing profit-based or productivity-based bonus does not impliedly or expressly abrogate a separate and established claim to customary bonus unless it clearly says so.

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