Rajagopala Ayyangar, J.

Disposing of W.P. No. 648 of 1959, which was a petition filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India by the Railway Employees' Co-operative Bank, Ltd., Park Town, Madras, for the issue of a writ of prohibition prohibiting the presiding officer, labour court, Madras, from proceeding further with the hearing of a claim petition No. 160 of 1959 on its file. That petition was filed by one Jayaraman, who was a workman employed by the bank purporting to be under S.33C(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Before we refer to the allegations in this petition it is necessary to refer to an application made earlier by the Railway Employees' Co-operative Bank State Union, members of which were employees of the bank under S.51 of the Madras Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, for a declaration that the normal hours of work for the employees of the bank shall be 33 1/2 hours a week and that the employees are entitled to overtimes wages in respect of overtime work beyond 33 1/2 hours per week. The bank's case was that the hours of work for the employees were not fixed and that they were allowed to leave office at about 4-30 p.m. If they had finished th