An Advocate's office is not a 'shop' within the meaning of the Shops and Establishment Act, and therefore, the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act are not applicable to an Advocate's office.

( 1 ) THIS petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India is directed against the order dated the 3rd of February, 1961 passed by the Legal Authority under the Payment of Wages Act, Gwalior in Case No. 15 of 1959.

( 2 ) THE petitioner is an Advocate in the Madhya Pradesh High Court and has office at Naya Bajar Lashkar. The opponent No. 1 Ganesh Narain Kalekar was engaged as a clerk by the petitioner on a fixed salary of Rs. 100/- per month to work in his office. On the 5th of November, 1959 the opponent No. 1 submitted an application--to the Legal Authority under the Payment of Wages Acts wherein he claimed arrears of his salary till 14-10-1959. The said application was moved under Section 30 of the Madhya Pradesh Shops and Establishment Act, 1958 read with Section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act.

( 3 ) A preliminary objection was raised by the present petitioner to the maintainability of the application on the ground that the Shops and Establishment act can nave no application to persons employed in an Advocate's office. The petitioner, therefore, contended that the Legal Authority had no jurisdiction to entertain the application. This objection having been overuled the petitioner has come up before this Court with a prayer for issuance of a writ of certiorari against opponent No. 2, the Legal Authority under the Payment of Wages Act at Gwalior, and also under Article 227 of the Constitution of India for quashing the impugned order.

( 4 ) THE question which falls for determination in this case is whether an Advocate's office is a 'shop' within the meaning of Clause (24) of Section 2 of the M. P. Shops and Establishment Act, 1958 which runs as under:

" (24) -- 'shop' means any premises where goods are sold, either by retail or wholesale or both or where services are rendered to customers, and includes an office, a store room, godown, warehouse or work-place, whether in the same premises or otherwise used in connection with such trade or business but does not include a factory, a commercial establishment, residential hotel, restaurant, eating-house, theatre or other place of public amusement or entertainment or a shop attached to a factory where the persons employee in the shop are allowed the benefits provided for workers under the Factories Act, 1948 (LXIII of 1948);"

Evidently an Advocate's office cannot be said to be premises where goods are sold either by retail or whole sale or both. Therefore, we have to see if such an office can be said to be premises "where services are rendered to customers. " A lawyer no doubt renders services to his clients but the question is whether he renders them on the premises in which he holds his office. In London General Cab Co. , Ltd. v. L. R. C. , (1950) 2 All ER 566 certain cab owners gave their cabs to drivers under an agreement whereby the drivers paid to the owners a pro-portion of the money received by them as fare from the passengers. It was held that the cab-owners were not rendering any service on the premises. This decision was followed in State v. Kushalchand 1960 Jab L. I 120 where the question was whether the premises which were used for stocking and letting on hire bicycles were used for rendering any service there. It was held that no services were in fact rendered on the premises. An Advocate might I accept a brief at his office, or draw up pleadings, or be available for consultation on legal matters. But in doing all this he is not rendering any service to his clients actually on the premises.

( 5 ) IT is also difficult to see how a client can be termed as a 'customer' of an advocate. A 'customer', as of general acceptation is one who, on his own account, liabtually or frequently has commercial or monetary dealings with a trading or business person, firm, or concern, in matters relating to such trading or business;-- (See Stroud's Judicial Dictionary 3rd Edition page 705 ). The second part of the definition of the word 'shop' as was field by the