TARUN AGARWALA, J. - (1.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing counsel representing the respondents. The petitioner is a Society registered under the U.P. Co-operative Societies Act, 1965. Proceedings under Section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, were initiated by the respondent No. 2 against the petitioner for the alleged illegal deduction ofthe wages. The Prescribed Authority passed an order to proceed ex-parte and thereafter passed an order under Section 15 of the Act.
(2.) Being aggrieved by the said orders, the petitioner has filed the present writ petition. The short submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner is, that the Payment of Wages Act, is not applicable upon the petitioner's society, inasmuch as, it is neither a factory nor a railway or an establishment and therefore, the petitioners are not covered under the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act. Consequently, the authority had no jurisdiction to proceed against the petitioner. Sub-section (4) of Section 1 and sub-section (5) of Section 1 of the Act reads as under: "1. (4) It applies in the first instance to the payment of wages to persons employed in any (factory, to persons) employed (otherwise than in a factory) upon any railway by a railway administration or, either directly or through a sub-contractor, by a person fulfilling a contract with a railway administration, (and to persons employed in an industrial or other establishment specified in sub-clauses (a) to (g) of clause (ii) of Section 2. 1. (5) The State Government may, after giving three months' notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the Official Gazette, extend the provisions of (this Act) or any of them to the payment of wages to any class of persons employed in (any establishment or class of establishments specified by the Central Government or a State Government under sub-clause (h) of clause (ii) of Section 2: Provided that in relation to any such establishment owned by the Central Government, no such notification shall be issued except with the concurrence of that Government."
(3.) From a perusal of the aforesaid, the Act applies to person employed in a Factory, or in a railway or in such other establishment contemplated under Section 2(ii) of the Act, namely: "2.(ii) "Industrial or other establishment" means any- (a) tramway service, or motor transport service engaged in carrying passengers or goods or both by road, for hire or reward; (aa) air transport service other than such service belonging to, or exclusively employed in the military, naval or air forces of the union or the Civil Aviation Department of the Government of India;] (b) dock, wharf or jetty; (c) inland vessel, mechanically propelled;] (d) mine, quarry or oilfield; (e) plantation; (f) workshop or other establishment in which articles are produced, adapted or manufactured, with a view to their use, transport or sale; (g) establishment in which any work relating to the construction, development or maintenance of buildings, roads, bridges or canals, or relating to operations reconnected with navigation, irrigation or the supply of water, or relating to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity or any other forms of power is being carried on.";