DIVISIONAL PERSONNEL OFFICER Vs. RAMCHANDRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE nonpetitioner Ram Chandra was a Guard in the authorised scale Rs. 130/ -225/ - and his salary was Rs. 150/ - per month plus Dearness Allowance. He had a snake bite as a result of which he was incapacitated from performing the running duty of a Guard. On his own request he was absorbed as a Ticket Collector in the grade: Rs. 110, 180 on the maximum salary of Rs. 180/ - per month and was posted at Ratangarh. On 25 -8 -1964 he made an application under Sub -section (2) of Section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (which will hereinafter be referred to as 'the Act') in the Court of Sub -divisional Magistrate, Ratangarh, appointed as Authority under the Act claiming Rs. 2554.40 np. on account of deduction from his wages for the period commencing from 27 -6 -1960 to 2 -8 -1964 and also for compensation amounting to Rs. 25,544/ being 10 times of the amount claimed. His case was that as a guard he was d awing 40% of his pay on account of running duties which came to Rs. 63. 20 paisa per month. He averred that his pay should have been fixed at Rs. 221. 20 np. per month in the alternative appointment provided to him as a Ticket Collector. On the basis of the difference between the pay claimed by him that is Rs 221.20 np and the pay actually fixed, that is Rs. 180/ - he claimed Rs. 2554.40 np as already stated above. This application was registertd as Application No. 42 of 1964. The claim was resisted by the Railway inter alia on the ground that the Authority had no jurisdiction to determine the wages of the applicant and further that the claim did not fall within the scope of the words -deductions from the wages or delay in payment of the wages. By this order dated 18 -1 -1965 the Authority held that it had jurisdiction to entertain and try the claim, as it amounted to deduction of wages. Thereafter the learned Authority by his judgment dated 1 -7 -1965 allowed the applicant's claim for Rs. 2554.40 np and awarded Rs. 1000/ - in addition to the said amount by way of compensation.

(2.) THEREAFTER the applicant filed the present application out of which this revision application arises on 8 -10 -1965 for recovery of Rs. 952.40 op alleged to have been deducted from his wages for the period commencing from 3 -8 -1964 to 12 -9 -1965 and ten times the compensation that is Rs. 10476.40 np The Railways again resisted the claim inter alia on the ground that the application falls out -side the scope of the Payment of Wages Act and that the judgment dated 11 -7 -1965 in the previous case No. 42/1964 did not operate as res judicata. The learned Authority by its judgment dated 20 -11 -1966, however, repelled the Railway's contention and allowed the plaintiff's claim for Rs. 798.40 np on account of illegal deductions from the wages, Rs. 3193.60 np as compensation being 4 times the amount of the claim and Rs 55/ - as costs.

(3.) LEARNED Counsel for the petitioner has urged, in the first instance, that the Authority was not competent to entertain the claim in as much as it amounted to determination of potential wages. He has urged in this connection that the judgment in the previous case cannot operate as res judicata. The only other point urged by him is that in any view of the matter the Authority as well as the learned District Judge were not justified in awarding compensation to the extent of four times the claim.