P.N. Mookerjee, A.C.J. - (1.) This Rule was obtained by the Petitioner who Was the claimant for payment of gratuity against an order of the Tribunal below (authority under the Payment of Wages Act), upholding the preliminary objection raised by the opposite party that the instant case was not entertainable by it.
(2.) The Tribunal below apparently acted upon the view that, under Sec. 1(6) of the Payment of Wages Act, it had no jurisdiction to entertain the present claim inasmuch as the 15 days' wages to be calculated for the purpose of arriving at the figure for gratuity would be on the basis of wages, admittedly above Rs. 400 per month. We are unable to agree with the authority below in the said view it has taken in the matter.
(3.) It is true that the instant case is one of payment of gratuity on termination of service and that for the last 12 months of his service the Petitioner was drawing a pay of Rs. 530 per month. It is true also that, under the relevant award, gratuity is to be calculated at the rate of 15 days' wages on the basis of average substantive pay or wages during the last 12 months of service, that is, Rs. 530 per month. The said figure of Rs. 530 per month would, however, be only for the purpose of the above calculation and the amount payable to the Petitioner on account of gratuity on the above basis would be Rs. 7,155 for the entire period of his service, that is, for a period of 27 years roughly speaking. The average then would come to much less than Rs. 400 per month; or, in other words, the average of the wages claimed for the relative wage period, assuming that there will be a wage period for such gratuities, would be less than Rs. 400 per month, there being no question that in the instant case the gratuity claimed would be wages under Sec. 2(vi)(d) of the Act. In that; view, we hold that the bar under Sec. 1(6) of the above Act would not apply and the Tribunal below would have ample jurisdiction to entertain the present claim.;