STATE Vs. BENI BAHADUR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a criminal revision on behalf of the State of Uttar Pradesh against an order dated the 20th of April, 1954, passed by the Sessions Judge of Gorakhpur, allowing a Criminal appeal filed by the opposite-party by which ho set aside an order dated the 9th of April, 1953, passed by a learned Judicial Magistrate of the First Class by which the Magistrate allowed a compensation of Rs. 7 per worker to each of 1,400 workers belonging to the Padrauna Raj Krishna Sugar works Limited, Padrauna, under the provisions of Section 15 (3) of the Payment of Wages Act, no. IV of 1936.

(2.) A preliminary objection has been taken by the opposite-party to the effect that a revision does not lie.

(3.) THE Chief Inspector of Factories complained to the District Magistrate of Deoria that Sri Beni bahadur Singh, the Manager of the Padrauna Raj Krishna Sugar Works Limited, who was the person responsible under the Payment of Wages Act for the payment of wages to 1,400 of the workers, failed to pay the wages for December, 1952, and he sought direction under Sub-section (3) of Section 15 for payment of the delayed wages and for compensation amounting to Rs. 10 for each worker. Under Section 15 (1) of that Act the Provincial Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint any commissioner for workmen's compensation, or other officer with experience as a Judge of a Civil Court, or as a stipendiary Magistrate to be the authority to hear and decide for any specified area all claims arising out of deductions from the wages or delay in the payment of wages of persons employed or paid in that area. The Provincial government by Notification No. 3844/xviii-625, dated the 22nd of December, 1936, appointed every officer of the Indian Civil Service or of the United Provinces Civil Service in charge of a subdivision, or a City Magistrate to be the authority to hear and decide all claims arising out of deductions from wages or delay in payment of wages of persons employed in his jurisdiction. Under that Notification the District Magistrate of Deoria, who did not belong either to the Indian civil Service or of the United Provinces Civil Service in charge of a subdivision and who was not even the City Magistrate, was not the person who could be regarded as the authority to hear and decide claims arising out of delay in payment of wages of persons employed or paid in that area. The District Magistrate, therefore, wrongly assumed jurisdiction over the matter when on the 5th of February, 1953, he passed an order to the effect that the claim in respect of the delay in the payment of the wages should be inquired into and tried by "the Judicial Officer Hata (Sri naimuddin Ahmad), Kasia. " this officer again was a Judicial Magistrate who did not belong either to the Indian Civil Service or to the United Provinces Civil Service in charge of a sub-division and who was not even the city Magistrate authorised to hear and decide such claims. The Judicial Magistrate heard the matter and by his order dated the 9th of April, 1953, directed Sri Beni Bahadur Singh to pay a total sum of Rs. 9,800 to the 1,400 workers, reckoned at Rs. 7 per worker, under Section 15 (3)of the Act.