ORDER :- The Railway Employees Co-operative Bank Ltd., Madras is the petitioner, and it prays for the grant of a writ of prohibition, restraining the Presiding Officer of the Labour Court from proceeding further with the hearing in C. P. No. 160 of 1959 on its file. There are two respondents to this petition. The first is the presiding officer of the Labour Court, Madras, against whom the writ of prohibition is sought. The other is Jayaraman who was an employee of the petitioner bank. 84 of the employees of whom the second respondent is one, filed applications before the Labour Court claiming over-time wages under S. 33-C(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, on the basis that this was a benefit which they were entitled to receive from the employer, the prayer being that it should be computed in terms of money. The overtime wages claimed and which they desired to be computed related to the period May to November 1956. These 84 applications which were in common form but naturally claiming different sums were filed in April 1959.

2. This claim to overtime was based on S. 31 of the Madras Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, reading,

"Where any person employed in any establis