A claim for arrears of wages not arising out of a dispute regarding the minimum wage payable is not entertainable under Section 20 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

( 1 ) THIS petition is directed against an order dated 15-10-1958, passed by Sri Markandey Singh, city Magistrate, Lucknow, in a case started under Section 20 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The case before him was started on the application of one Sri J. N. Gupta, Labour Inspector, appointed under the said Act. The petitioner, who is a Government Contractor, was the opposite party. It was pointed out that the petitioner here, the opposite party in proceedings before the learned Magistrate, had not paid the wages to his employees within 7 days of their falling due. The amount payable by him to the labourers was reported to be Rs. 821/14/ -. The petitioner disputed his liability for the amount pointing out that none of the persons except one Babu Lal to whom the arrears were said to be due, had ever worked under him. In the case of Babu Lal the justification put forward was that his work was unsatisfactory. A significant fact and with which this petition will be directly concerned is that there was no dispute as regards the rate of wages payable to the several employees. The question before the magistrate merely was whether a certain set of persons had worked as employees of the petitioner and, therefore, were entitled to be paid their wages also. The difference in thecase of babu Lal which differed from the case of the remaining employees again was whether he was entitled to the wage asked by him because his work had not been found to be satisfactory. The learned Magistrate framed the following four issues: 1. Whether the O. P. was liable to pay the wages to the workers whose names are mentioned in para 4 of the application?

( 2 ) TO what wages, if any, are these workers entitled?

( 3 ) TO what compensation, if any, are the workers entitled?

( 4 ) TO what relief, if any are the workers entitled? while discussing the first three issues he referred to the evidence of certain persons including the report of the Labour Inspector on the basis of which he held that the persons reported by the labour Inspector had worked as employees of the petitioner and the wages or rather the arrears of wages asked by them were due. He also held that a sum of Rs. 50/-was payable as compensation. In the end, therefore, he passed an order directing the petitioner to pay Rs. 821/14/- to the workers as arrears of their wages and Rs. 50/- as compensation within a period of fifteen days. 2. By the present petition the petitioner has impugned the above proceedings before the learned magistrate on the ground, broadly stated, that the Minimum Wages Act failed to confer any such jurisdiction on the Magistrate who, therefore, was incompetent to make the order in question. A survey of the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, would point out, as the preamble thereto has also stated, that it was an Act to provide for the fixing of minimum rates of wages in certain employments. Section 2 has defined certain expressions including an "employer" and "scheduled employment". The term "wages" too has been defined and likewise the expression "employee". The next Section gives power to the appropriate Government to fix minimum rates of wages which it can do in the case of employments specified in the schedules which are part of the Act. The minimum wages can be fixed with reference to hour, day and month or any larger period as should be prescribed. Section 4 describes what the minimum rate of wage shall consist ot. In section 5 the procedure for fixing and revising the wages is laid down and the next few sections lay down the establishment of Advisory Board etc. to advise the Government in relation to its duties under the Act. The next relevant Section is 12 which says that where in respect of any scheduled employment a notification under Section 5 is in force, the employer shall pay to every employee engaged in a scheduled employment under him wages at a rate not less than the minimum rate of wages fixed for the particular employment. Section 13 is