JUDGMENT - Desai, J.

1. This is a petition for a writ, order or direction under Art. 226 of the Constitution directing respondent 2 to hear and determine, on merits, certain applications preferred to him by the petitioners under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, and which applications were dismissed by him on a preliminary objection that he had no jurisdiction to entertain the same. In the petition the petitioners have also asked for a mandate under Art. 227 of the Constitution, but learned counsel for the petitioners gave up the petition so far as it was based under that article.

2. The petitioners at present are, and in partition days were, low-paid employees in the Parel Workshops of the Central Railway (formerly G.I. P. Railway). Respondent 1 is the person responsible for the payment of wages to the petitioners under S. 3 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. Respondent 2 is the authority constituted under the Payment of Wages Act. The petitioners made applications for refund of certain illegal deductions alleged to have been made in their wages by respondent 1. A large number of applications of the same nature were preferred before respondent 2 who disposed of the same by one common

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