GOPALAN Vs. ANGAMALI CHIT FUND P LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In execution of a decree obtained against the appellants in this case, the respondent Angamali Chit Fund Private Ltd., sought attachment of certain amounts due by way of bonus, to the appellants and the first judgment debtor who are the employees of the Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd., Kalamassery. When the notice of interim attachment was received, the appellants and the first defendant in the case raised objections. After hearing the objections the interim attachment in respect of bonus due to the first judgment debtor was made absolute and the attachment of the amounts due to the judgment debtors 2 to 4 who are the appellants here was raised. The decree holder thereupon filed A. S. No. 115 of 1973, before the Additional District Judge, Parur. The appeal was allowed and the order raising the attachment was vacated as against judgment debtors 2 to 4. The present Second Appeal is filed by judgment debtors 2 to 4 against the above order.

(2.) The contention raised in the appeal is that the bonus amounts due to the appellants are not liable to attachment in view of S.60(1)(k) of the C.P.C. Under S.60(1)(h) of the C.P.C. the wages of labourers and domestic servants, whether payable in money or in kind, are not liable to be attached. The respondent, on the other hand, would deny that the amount attached fell under the category of wages. There is also the case that the appellants are not labourers coming under the purview of S.60(1)(h) of the C.P.C. On the first point, the argument is that bonus allowed to a labourer comes under the category of ex gratia payment and cannot be considered to be part of the wages.

(3.) The question whether bonus paid to a labourer was part of wages came up for consideration in A. Muniswamy v. T. Viswanatha, 1957 Madras 773. Ramaswami J , after an elaborate discussion of the meanings of the words 'wages' and 'bonus' in the different enactments came to the following conclusion: