The Authority under the Payment of Wages Act has jurisdiction to determine whether an employee was employed during a relevant period, as it is necessary to determine the terms of the contract and the wages due.

Chagla, C.J.

1. This special civil application has been referred to a Full Bench by Mr. Justice Shah and Mr. Justice Gokhale. No question has been formulated by the learned Judges, but it seems that they took the view that the decision of a Division Bench of this Court in Anthony Almeda v. Taylor, 58 Bom LR 899: (AIR 1956 Bom 737) (A), requires reconsideration inasmuch as a decision of the Supreme Court in DCosta v Patel, 57 Bom LR 738: ( (S) AIR 1055 SC 412) (B), seems to the learned Judges inconsistent with the view taken of the law in Almedas case (A).

2. Now, curiously enough, the Advocate General emphatically asserts before us that not only the decision of the Supreme Court is not inconsistent with Almedas case (A), but that the decision of the Supreme Court supports and reinforces the view taken by this Court in Almedas case (A), and Mr. Singhvi not so emphatically also agrees that it is difficult to find any inconsistency between the judgment of the Supreme Court and the judgment in Almedas case (A). But inasmuch as the matter has been referred to the Full Bench and the matter has been argued at great length and the Advocate General tells us that a decision should be given by us because a large number of petitions are pending and the decision of which would be governed by the view we take in this Full Bench, we must proceed to decide the question referred to us.

3. Now, to state the facts briefly, the petitioner was employed as a Khalasi in the Loco Shed of the Central Railway at Kalyan. He was employed on 3rd October 1947. On 26th October 1949 he was arrested on a charge under Sections 457 and 380 of the Indian Penal Code and placed before the First Class Magistrate at Kalyan, and it appears that he was released on bail on 4th November 1949. On 6th May 1953 he was discharged by the learned Magistrate and the learned Magistrate gave him, as it were, a clean bill and said in his judgment that there would be no objection to his being reinstated by the Railway Authorities. He resumed his work -- and we are using a neutral expression -- on 20th October 1953, and he filed a petition before the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act claiming wages from the period 25th October 1949 to 19th October 1953. The Authority decreed his claim. There was an appeal to the District Court and the learned District Judge took the view that the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act had no jurisdiction to deal with this matter. Thereupon the employee filed a petition under the Constitution before the Division Bench consisting of Mr. Justice Shah and Mr. Justice Gokhale and it is this Bench that has referred the matter to us.

4. Now, we should have thought, but for the fact that we are sitting here as a Full Bench, that the law as to the jurisdiction of the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act is fairly well settled. If it is necessary at all, we will reiterate it as briefly as possible. The leading case on the subject is Sarin v. Patil, 53 Bom LR 674: (AIR 1951 Bom 423) (C), where a Division Bench was for the first time called upon to consider the scheme of the Act and the jurisdiction of the Authority under the Act, and in that decision we laid down that the Authority had no jurisdiction to decide whether the services of an employee had been rightly or wrongly terminated or whether the dismissal was lawful or unlawful. We said that such a question would not come within the purview of the special tribunal set up under the Act. Although that was the question that arose for our determination, we also made it clear as to what was the nature and ambit of the jurisdiction of the Authority, and in brief what we said was that the primary function of the Authority was to determine what the wages of the employee were and whether there had been a delay in payment of those wages or a deduction from those wages, and in order to determine the wages it may be necessary to determine what the terms, of the contract were under which the employee