A SATTAR SALEHMOHAMMAD Vs. RAGHUBIR THAKUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure filed on behalf of the Mutipur Zamindari Co. (Private) Ltd. against 26 of its employees challenging the order dated the 22nd August, 1959, of the Presiding Officer of the Labour Court, North Bihar, Muzaffarpur, who is the authority appointed under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (Central Act 11 of 1943), hereinafter referred to as the Act.

(2.) Twentynine workmen filed an application under Sub-section (3) of Section 20 of the Act in the Court below for a direction to the Chief Executive Officers or the Company to pay to them their wages for the tour Sundays of the month of April, 1959, together with compensation. Their case was that they were entitled to wages for the said 4 weekly holidays by virtue of notification No. VI/W3-1088/59 L-4068 dated the 4th March, 1959, published in the Bihar Gazette of the 1st April, 1959, fixing the minimum rates of wages for agricultural employment in the district of Muzaffarpur, read with Rule 23 of the Bihar Minimum Wages Rules, 1951, hereinafter referred to as the Rules. The notification dated the 4th of March, 1959, was exhibited and marked Ex. 1 in the Court below.

(3.) On behalf of the employer, the application was resisted on the ground that it was not legally maintainable and the workers were not entitled to wages for the alleged weekly holidays as the Government of Bihar had not issued notification providing for a day of rest as required by Section 13 (1) of the Act subsequent to the issuance of the notification (Ext. 1). Its (employer's) further case was that none of the applicants had been doing the work which had been specified in the schedule attached to Ext. 1 and as such it could not be said that the Government of Bihar had fixed minimum rates of wages for the kind of work done by them, in the Court below, the last stand taken on behalf of the management was that, the normal working hours of the applicants being 9 hours per day as fixed in the notification, they could not be entitled to any rest day as they work only for 48 hours in a week, that is to say, at the rate of 8 hours a day for the 6 days of the week.