MEWAR TEXTILE MILLS Vs. GIRDHARISINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) TWO questions have been referred by a learned Single Judge for reply by a larger Bench and that is how the matter has come before us. These questions are: whether the authority appointed by the State Government under (1)Section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act is a Civil Court subject to the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court under Section 115 of the Civil procedure Code. (2) Whether it would be proper for this Court to interfere with the orders of the said authority under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, to correct its errors.

(2.) THE facts which have led to this reference may be briefly narrated. The opposite parties are in the employ of the applicant, namely the Mewar Textile Mills Ltd. , bhilwara. The applicant imposed a fine on them for late coming on various dates and deducted the amount from the wages paid to them. Thereupon, the opposite parties applied to the District Magistrate, Bhilwara, who is the authority appointed under Section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (Act No. IV of 1936), hereinafter called the Act. The District Magistrate was of opinion that the deductions were improper and that the amount should be refunded to the opposite parties along with a certain amount as compensation. The order was not appealable under Section 17 of the act as the amount involved did not exceed Rs. 300/ -. The applicant, therefore, came to this Court in revision under Section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure in all the seventeen cases and that is how there were seventeen revisions in this court.

(3.) WHEN the matter came for hearing before a learned single Judge of this Court, a preliminary objection was taken that no revision lay under Section 115 of the Civil procedure Code as the authority under the Payment of Wages Act was not a Civil court subordinate to the High Court within the meaning of Section 115, C. P. C. As there was difference of opinion between various High Courts on this question, the learned single Judge has thought it fit to refer the two questions, which in his opinion, arose for decision and which we have set out above.