K KUTTAN PILLAI Vs. DISTRICT MAGISTRATE QUILON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A petition was filed by eleven workmen of the 2nd respondent before the 1st respondent, the Authority appointed for their area under S. 20 (1) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The application was signed by two of them - The petitioner and one Kunju Pillai -as allowed by the note in Form No. VI of the Travancore-Cochin Minimum Wages rules, 1951: "when the application is by a group of employees the thumb impression or signatures of two of the applicants need be put to the application and a full list of applicants should be attached to application". The 1st respondent held that a court fee of rupee one for each of the applicants is required and the only contention urged before us is that the said decision is incorrect.

(2.) R. 31 (omitting the provisions attached thereto) of the travancore-Cochin Minimum Wages Rules, 1951, reads as follows: "the court fee payable in respect of proceedings under S. 19 shall be- (i) for every application to summon a witness - One rupee in respect of each witness; (ii) for every application made by or on behalf of an individual - One rupee". The reference to S. 19 must be due to some printer's error. The relevant section is not S. 19 but S. 20 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

(3.) IN view of what is stated above it is not possible to say that Kuttan Pillai, the petitioner before us, has been aggrieved by the decision of the 1st respondent on the question of court fee to the effect that the court fee payable is not rupee one per application but rupee one per applicant. None of the other three petitioners who pressed their claims before the 1st respondent, namely, Nos. 3, 6 and 9 have chosen to question the correctness of the ruling or are parties to this petition.