JASWANTSINGH Vs. ASSISTANT JUDGE MAHSANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are two connected writs by the Divisional Personnel Officer of the western Railway at Aimer under Article 226 of the Constitution praying for a writ of certiorari in connection with a matter under the Payment of Wages Act. The applications were originally filed in the High Court of Bombay and have come to this Court under Section 64 (2) of the States Reorganization Act, 1956.

(2.) IT is not necessary for present purposes to set out in detail the case of the parties. Suffice it to say that an application was made by Bal Krishna Maheshwari, opposite Party No. 3, who was in the service of the Western Railway at Abu Road, on 7-7-1952 under the Payment of Wages Act before the Authority having jurisdiction in the matter viz. the Civil Judge, Junior Division, Abu Road, Balkrishna maheshwari claimed that his wages had been illegally deducted and prayed for relief under section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act. The matter was enquired into by the Authority concerned and an order in favour of balkrishna Maheshwari was passed on 30-4-1954. Thereupon there was an appeal to the District Court at Mehsana under Section 17 of the Payment of Wages Act which was disposed of by the Assistant Judge of Mehsana on 31-7-1956. 'another application was made on 18-2-1953 and this was decided by the Civil Judge, junior Division on :30-9-1954. The appeal in this case also was disposed of by the same judgment dated 31-7-1956. The Assistant Judge held that the appeals were incompetent in view of an amendment of Section 17 of the Payment of Wages Act by the Bombay legislature. He, therefore, dismissed the appeals without going into the merits of the case-

(3.) CONSEQUENTLY, these two applications were filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the correctness of the order of the Assistant Judge, Mehsana as to the competency of the appeals, and also challenging other matter with which, however, we are not concerned at this stage.