ZILLA PARISHAD SATARA Vs. SURESH DAGADU GHADGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned Counsel for the parties.

(2.) The Civil Application is taken out by the Applicants (Original Petitioners) for being relieved from the responsibility of paying wages under Section 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, in terms of the order passed by a Division Bench of this Court in the Petition on 17 December 2013. The Division Bench was considering the Applicants' prayer for stay of execution and operation of the impugned award pending disposal of the Petition subject inter alia to an order in terms of Section 17B requiring the Applicants to pay wages during the pendency of the Petition. It is the Applicants' case that they have duly paid full wages on the basis of the last drawn wages in terms of the Division Bench's order dated 17 December 2013 to the Respondent upto the date of his superannuation. (It is an admitted position that the Respondent has superannuated with effect from 1 June 2015.) It is not in dispute that wages payable till 31 May 2015 in accordance with Section 17B have been fully paid by the Applicants to the Respondent. Considering the fact that the Respondent has superannuated with effect from 1 June 2015, clearly no wages in accordance with Section 17B are payable to the Respondent after that date.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the Respondent submits that Section 17B does not indicate that wages payable thereunder are payable only till the date of superannuation. He submits that the Section, in terms, requires payment of full wages at the rate last drawn by the workman throughout during the pendency of the proceedings. He relies on the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Dena Bank Vs. K.T. Patel, 1998 1 CurLR 191 in support of his contention.