ARYODAYA SPINNING AND WEAVING CO LTD Vs. SIVA VIRCHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under s. 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act. There is no appearance for the opponent. The petitioner was the defendant, a Mill Company of Ahmedabad, and the opponent-plaintiff was employed in the Mill as a jobber or Muccadum. He brought this suit to recover wages from the 1 October to the 2 November, 1908. His case both in the plaint and in a notice threatening litigation, before the plaint, was that he had been unjustifiably dismissed from the defendant's service. In the course of his evidence in the suit, however, he was driven to admit that he was not dismissed but left the service without notice, and that is found to be the fact.

(2.) Under the Rules of the Company it was incumbent upon the plaintiff to give the Company 15 days notice before he left their service. That rule has admittedly been infringed by the plaintiff in this case.

(3.) The learned Subordinate Judge has, however, given the plaintiff a decree for Rs. 40 against the defendant, mainly on the ground that, in his opinion, the Company's rule providing that in the absence of the 15 days notice, wages accrued due should not be payable to the servants, is a forfeiture clause which the Court should not enforce.