In Brief
The Supreme Court dismissed a trust's appeal challenging its obligation to pay statutory bonus to factory workers. WORTH Trust, established to rehabilitate leprosy-cured patients, also operates commercial factories manufacturing automobile parts since 1985. Although the trust engages in charitable work, the Court held that workers employed in its profit-generating factories are entitled to bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965. The trust could not claim exemption as an institution similar to the Indian Red Cross Society or as a non-profit entity because it operates independent commercial ventures generating surplus. The Court clarified that voluntary ex-gratia payments do not substitute statutory bonus obligations.
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