Is Maintaining Extra Contract Labour Names a Violation of the Contract Labour Act?

Contract Labour Act Applicability

As per the Contract Labour Act, Sec 1 (4), it applies:
(a) to every establishment in which twenty or more workmen are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months as contract labour.
(b) to every contractor who employs or who employed twenty or more workmen on any day of the preceding twelve months.

Present Scenario

1. One of the contractors has obtained a Contract Labour License for 50 labourers.
2. The contractor has been maintaining a Muster Roll with 60 contract labourer names. However, on no day has the count of contract labourers crossed 50, and the physical attendance or presence of contract labourers has not exceeded 50 members.

As you are aware, the practical problem faced by the contractor is significant absenteeism, leading the contractor to maintain a cushion of manpower.

Is this a violation of the act? If yes, what is the exact interpretation? What measures should be taken? Please advise.

Thanking you,
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy-Reasons]

The license to a contractor granted under the CLRA Act, 1970 has the following aspects:

Number-Specific Nature

(1) It is based on the maximum number of contract labor likely to be employed by the contractor on the particular work on any one day during the period of its validity mentioned in the license and not in respect of any particular persons to be engaged as contract labor. As such, it is only number-specific in respect of the contract labor.

Work-Specific Nature

(2) It is work-specific in respect of the Principal Employer as well as the contractor.

Time-Specific Nature

(3) It is time-specific or period-specific as far as the contract work is concerned.

However, notwithstanding the additional sums required to be paid towards the license fee and security deposit, the contractor may consider keeping a reserve pool of labor to substitute the absentees, and such a practice of caution would require taking a license for slightly more than the maximum number of labor actually required on any one day. Even otherwise, it cannot be a violation under the Act as long as the maximum number of contract labor employed on any day remains equal to the maximum number of labor mentioned in the license already granted.