PEIRCE LESLIE AND CO LTD Vs. RAMA MOILY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three revision petitions arise out of an order made by the authority functioning under S. 15 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, directing the payment of retrenchment compensation to three employee and which was confirmed in appeal under S. 17 of that Act by the District Judge of South Kanara.

(2.) The respondents in these revision petitions were the employees and their employer was the petitioner-company. On December 14, 1959 all the three employees were served with notice by the company that their services were terminated with effect from December 22, 1959 on the ground of continued ill-health. Those notices stated that they had been subjected to medical examination by the company's medical officer and that the expert opinion gathered by the company demonstrated that the employees were no longer medically fit to perform their normal duties which were required of them in the factory belonging to the company.

(3.) After the termination of the services of the employees in this way, there were applications made by each of them to the authority functioning under S. 15 of the Payment of Wages Act for the payment of retrenchment compensation. The company resisted those applications on the ground that retrenchment compensation was not payable to any workman whose service had been terminated on the ground of continued ill-health. The authority recorded a finding that it was not true that the employees were continuously ill and that therefore their service could not have been terminated on the ground of continued ill-health. So there was a direction to the company for payment of retrenchment compensation in the case of each of the three employees. The direction was affirmed by the District Judge. South Kanara, in the appeal preferred by the company.