CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER BOMBAY Vs. B SATYANARAYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the Chief Executive Officer of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, having its office at Vile Parle, a suburb of Bombay. If the Payment of Wages Act is applicable to the establishment of the Commission, he would be a person responsible for the payment of wages within the meaning of that Act. The respondent is an employee in the said establishment.

(2.) The respondent filed an application under the Payment of Wages Act contending that the petitioner deducted from his salary certain amounts and that the said deduction is in contravention of section 7 of the Act. He therefore, prayed in that application, numbered as P.W.A. 307 of 1982, for a direction for the payment of wages illegally deducted form his salary by the petitioner. Among the grounds on which the petitioner resisted the claim of the respondent was that the Payment of Wages Act itself is not applicable to the establishment of the petitioner and, therefore, an application under section 15 of the said Act could not lie.

(3.) The authority under the Payment of Wages Act was invited to decide the question of the jurisdiction first before deciding the claim of the respondent on merits. By his judgement and order dated 31st December, 1983 the authority under the Act held that the Act did apply to the establishment of the petitioner and, therefore, the respondents application was maintainable. While doing so the authority noticed that admittedly the petitioners establishment is an establishment within the meaning of the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948. The authority also noticed that under section 38(1) of the Shops and Establishments Act, the then Government of Bombay had issued a notification making the Payment of Wages Act applicable to all the establishments governed by the Shops and Establishments Act. It was pointed out to the authority that in exercise of the powers conferred upon the State Government by section 4 of the Shops and Establishments Act, the State Government has exempted the establishment of the Commission from certain provisions of the Act. The fact that the establishment of the Commission was exempted from certain provisions of the Act did not, according to the authority, make the Act itself inapplicable to the establishment of the Commission. If the Act itself is applicable, the Payment of Wages Act also becomes applicable by virtue of the notification issued under section 38(1) of the Shops and Establishments Act. Consistent with this view, the authority held that the respondents application was maintainable and should proceed on merits. It is against this order of the authority that the Commission has come to this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.