This Letters Patent Appeal is against an order of Mack, J., while presiding over the Second Criminal Sessions of the High Court. The learned Judge held that the appellant had committed ex facie contempt of Court on the 30th April, 1954 and affording to the appellant an opportunity to show cause why he should not be committed for contempt found him guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000. The appeal is against this order of Mack, J., convicting the appellant and sentencing him to the punishment above mentioned.

We are not now concerned with the details of the contempt alleged or the merits of the contentions raised by the appellant in this appeal, as the question which we have now to decide merely relates to a preliminary objection that the appeal itself is incompetent under clause 15 of the Letters Patent.

In order to appreciate how the case has arisen it would be convenient to set out in brief outline the matters that led to the present proceedings. Mr. Justice Mack was appointed by the State of Madras under section 7 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, as the sole member of an Industrial Tribunal to adjudicate upon an industrial dispute which existed between the