Girish Chandra Gupta, J. - (1.) In an application under Section 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act made by the workman in a pending writ petition, filed earlier by the employer challenging the award, this Court passed the following order : "Considering the fact that the respondent workman has already reached the age of superannuation, I find lot of substance in the submission advanced by Mr.Chatterjee that Court cannot direct payment of wages to a workman who has already crossed the age of superannuation. I, therefore, am not inclined to pass any order directing the writ petitioner to pay any monthly wages to the respondent workman. But, at the same time, considering the views expressed by the Apex Court in the case of Dena Bank, I am of the opinion that the workman cannot be left high and dry so long as the employer chooses to litigate on the award which is, on the face of it, in favour of the workman. I, therefore, direct the writ petitioner to deposit the amount as per the award together with interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum with the Registrar, Original Side. The money to be deposited by the writ petitioner shall be kept in a short term fixed deposit with the United Bank of India, High Court Branch, Kolkata, to the credit of the Registrar, Original Side, subject to further order of this Court. The interest to be accrued to such deposit shall be payable to the writ petitioner month by month or quarterly as the case may be. It is made clear that this money must be deposited within a period of four weeks. In default of such deposit the order dated 11th February, 2004 shall stand vacated."
(2.) Due to inadvertence on the part of the Court it was directed that "The interest to be accrued to such deposit shall be payable to the writ petitioner month by month or quarterly as the case may be". From the tenor of my judgement it would appear that the intention was that so long as the writ petition is pending, the workman should get the interest of the deposit directed to be made. I intended to direct that the interest shall be payable to the applicant but by mistake I directed that the interest be paid to the petitioner. It is a mistake on the part of the Court which is palpable from the order and the mistake of the Court can be corrected ex debito justitiae. It was occasioned by an accidental slip on my part which is also clear from the tenor of the order and is, therefore, also open to correction under Section 152 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
(3.) Mr.Chatterjee, learned senior Advocate appearing for the writ petitioner, advanced two-fold submissions (a) in the event the applicant is allowed to appropriate the interest it would be difficult for the employer to recover the money from the workman; (b) if the mistake since pointed out by the workman had been disclosed immediately after obtaining the certified copy, the petitioner may have chosen to prefer an appeal against the judgment and order dated 21st October, 2009. Both the points, according to me, are without any substance.;