MUNICIPAL BOROUGH BIJAPUR Vs. GUNDAWAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are applications under Art. 227 of the Constitution. They arise from the decision of the learned judicial Magistrate, First Class, II Court, Bijapur, in Miscellaneous Cases Nos. 11 and 14 of 1959 on his file. The said learned magistrate was constituted as the "authority" under S. 20 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, to be hereinafter referred to as the Act to hear and decide all claims arising under Ss. 12 and 14 of the Act in the district of Bijapur. He will be hereinafter referred to as the "authority."

(2.) Miscellaneous Cases Nos. 11 and 14 of 1959 were disposed of by one common order. That order was assailed on various grounds which will be set out presently.

(3.) Briefly stated, the facts of the case material for our present purpose are these. The respondents are borne on the staff of the Bijapur Municipal Borough. They work in the octroi department of that borough. They claimed overtime allowance under the provisions of the Act from 1 April, 1955 to 31 March, 1958. Their claim was partly allowed and partly disallowed. The Bijapur Municipal Borough has come up with these petitions challenging the decision of the authority to the extent it went against it. The respondents have accepted that decision. The grounds urged in support of these petitions are :