The employer's obligation to lay-off employees under certain circumstances, and the exclusion of lay-off compensation from the definition of wages under the Industrial Disputes Act.

1. The petitioner is one of the employees of the second respondent company, who, along with seve- ral others, were served with a notice on the 23rd October 1953 by which the second respondent company intimated to them that they proposed to lay-off these employees owing to certain difficulties which might result in the stoppage of work. On the 24th October 1953 an Ordinance was promulgated which provided for compensation for lay-off and compensation for retrenchment. The provisions of this Ordinance were ultimately incorporated, in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as Chapter VA, Some of these employees were reinstated. With regard to the rest, including the petitioner a notice of termination of service was served upon them on the 28th September 1954. The second respondent company then approached the Labour Appellate Tribunal, before which certain" disputes between the second respondent company and its employees were pending, for permission to discharge these employees. The Labour Appellate Tribunal granted the permission with certain conditions. The second respondent company appealed to the Supreme Court and in January 1955 the Supreme Court decided that in granting permission no conditions could be attached by the Labour Appellate Tribunal and it remanded the matter to the Labour Appellate Tribunal to dispose of the application of the company on merits. The Labour Appellate Tribunal ultimately gave permission and on the 24th April 1955 the employees including the petitioner were discharged. The present application was filed by the petitioner and others, out of which this Special Civil Application arises, before the Payment of Wages Authority claiming full wages for the period 1st November 1953 to the 31st October 1954. It may be stated that the second respondent company has paid to its employees compensation for lay-off according to the provisions of the Act and also retrenchment compensation. But the contention of the petitioner before the Authority was that he was entitled to full wages from the 1st November 1953 to the 31st October 1954. This contention was rejected by the Authority and the petitioner, has now come before us on this application.

2. What has been urged by Mr. Buch before us is that an employer has no right to lay-off his workmen under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. According to him, the Act merely provides for compensation for workmen laid-off. The Act does not confer any right upon the employer to lay-off an employee. Such a right must be conferred upon the employer by contract of service between him and the employee. If such a contract does not confer a right, that right cannot arise out of the provisions of the Act. It is pointed out that In this case the contract between the employer and the employee does not confer any such right upon the employer. The contract permits the employer to determine the service of the employee summarily without notice and the employee can determine his employment at the cud of any day by notice in writ- , ing given by him to the company. It is clear that under the common law an employer could terminate the services of an employee at any time even though his business or his industry may only bo temporarily stopped and there was every prospect of resumption of that business or industry. There was no obligation upon the employer temporarily to suspend the services of his employee and reinstate him when his business or industry was resumed He was perfectly free to dismiss him and to employ new men when the business or industry was resumed. Nor did the common law impose any obligation upon the employer to give any compensation to an employee it his services were retrenched. The expression used by Mr. Buch on which he has based the whole of his argument that the employer does not possess the right to lay-off an employee under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act is not a very appropriate expression. Far from laying-off an employee, being a right