S. N. ANDLEY, C. J.

( 1 ) THESE writ petitions were heard together I as they involve a common question of law and they will be disposed of by this judgment. The common question of law relates to the interpretation and scope of section 33c (2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, hereinafter referred to as "the Act".

( 2 ) TO state it generally, what happened was that the individual petitioner in each of these petitions alleging himself to be a workman made an application to the specified Labour Court under the aforesaid section of the Act for the determination of the amount of money due to him and/or for computation in terms of money of the benefit to which he was entitled. The respective employer, in his reply be fore the specified Labour Court, denied the existence of the relationship of workman and employer and, thereupon, following the decision of a learned Single Judge of the Punjab High Court and ",some decisions of learned Single Judges of this Court, which shall be referred to hereinafter, the Labour Court held that it had no jurisdiction to determine the question of such relationship and ordered the return of the respective applications to the workman concerned. These ord

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