K.N. Singh, J. - (1.) Om Prakash Goel appellant filed an application before the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act at Kanpur under Sec. 15(2) claiming wages for the period between 20th March, 1963 to 31st May, 1963, as delayed and refused wages, he further claimed compensation amounting to Rs. 30,776.80. The Authority under the Payment of Wages Act (hereinafter referred to as the Authority) upheld the appellant's claim for the wages and awarded compensation ten times of the amount of wages on the ground that the employers namely Laxmiratan Engineering Works Ltd. respondent had illegally deducted the appellant's wages. Tire employers filed an appeal before the District Judge to which was rejected. Thereafter they filed a writ petition in this Court. A learned Single Judge allowed the writ petition. He quashed the order of the Prescribed Authority in so far as it directed the employers to pay ten times of the amount of Rs. 632.58 by way of compensation to the appellant. The learned Single Judge, however, upheld the award of Rs. 632.58 as wages payable to the appellant. Aggrieved, the workman has filed the present appeal.
(2.) Learned counsel for the appellant has contended that the employers did not pay any wages to the appellant for the period between 20th March, 1963 to 31st May, 1963, as such it was a case of deduction of wages. The learned Single Judge has wrongly held that it was not a case of delay in the payment of wages. He further urged that the appellant was entitled to compensation in addition to the wages as awarded by the Authority and the learned Single Judge was not justified in setting aside the award of compensation.
(3.) The Payment of Wages Act, 1936, is enacted to regulate payment of wages to certain employers of any industry or by a railway administration or by a person fulfilling a contract with the railway administration or with any industrial establishment to which the State Government has by notification extended the Act. Sec. 2, inter alia, defines wages which include all remuneration, allowance, expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed, payable to a person employed in any industry or in respect of the work done in such employment. Sec. 4 prescribes for fixation of wage period and requires that no wage period shall exceed one month, while Section 5 enjoins on the employers to pay the wages to the employees within 7th or 10th day of expiry of the wages period. Sec. 7 provides that wages shall be paid without deduction of any kind except those authorised by the Act. Secs. 9 to 13 lay down the deductions which the employers are authorised to make and the conditions under which such deductions can be made. Sec. 15(1) of the Act provides for the appointment of a person to be the Authority under the Act to hear and decide any claims arising out of deduction from wages or delay in payment of wages of persons employed or paid in that area including all matters incidental to such claims. Sub-sec. (2) of Section 15 provides that where any deduction has been made contrary to the provisions of the Act from the wages of employed person or any payment of wages has been delayed, the affected employee or any legal practitioner or Inspector on his behalf may apply to the Authority for a direction under Sub-sec. (3). Proviso to Sub-sec. (2) prescribes limitation of 12 months for making the claim before the Authority. Sub-sec. (3) empowers the Authority to hear applicant and the employer and to decide the claim. It is empowered to direct the employer to refund the amount deducted from the wages of the employee and in case of delayed wages, for payment of wages. In the former case the Authority is empowered to award compensation to the employee not exceeding ten times the amount deducted from his wages, while in the latter case the Authority may award compensation not exceeding Rs. 25/- . Sub-sec. (3) therefore, confers jurisdiction on the Authority to entertain claims for the refund of any portion of wages which may have been deducted from the wages of an employee and also for the payment of wages which may not have been paid by the employer within the wage period fixed under the Act.;