SWAMY Vs. CONTROLLING AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short point that arises for consideration in this petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution is whether under S. 4 (2) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, gratuity payable, to a workman should be calculated on the basis of wages earned by a workman in a total number of fifteen working days or at wages payable to a workman in a consecutive period of fifteen days inclusive of Sundays. Among the several workers, who claimed to be entitled to the payment of gratuity, some were daily-rated workers and some were monthly-rated workers. With regard to the daily-rated workmen, the controlling authority held that their gratuity has to be calculated on the basis of their daily rate of wages last drawn by him for every completed year of service or part thereof in excess of six months and in regard to the monthly-rated workers, it held that whatever wages would have been earned by monthly-rated workmen in a consecutive period of fifteen days were to be taken as the basis for determining the gratuity payable to them and that included the intervening Sundays. In that view it held that the management had correctly calculated the gratuity payable to them. Both the management and the workmen preferred appeals to the appellate authority. The appellate authority dismissed the appeal preferred by the petitioner herein and allowed the appeal preferred by the management of the; Vazir sultan Tobacco Company, respondent 3 herein.

(2.) IN order to determine this controversy it is necessary to read Sub-secs. (1) to (3)of S. 4 of the Act:

(3.) GRATUITY is an amount payable to a workman who has completed a period of six months or more and it has to be calculated at the rate of wages last drawn by the employee concerned. The term "wages" has been defined in S. 2 (s) as under :