1 CAW No.54.10 Bsb IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 54 OF 2010 IN WRIT PETITION NO. 7578 OF 2009 Shri Prabhakar N. Kale ... Applicant v/s Mather & Platt India Ltd. ... Respondent Mr.S.B.Bomble for the applicant. Mr.S.K.Talsania with Mr.R.N.Salgaonkar i/by i/by M/s. Salgaonkar & Co. for the respondent. CORAM: SMT.NISHITA MHATRE, J. DATED: 6TH AUGUST, 2010 P.C.: 1. The applicant has approached this Court by filing an application under Section 17-B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (in short, the I.D.Act), contending that he is entitled to the statutory minimum wages payable to the workers employed in the engineering industry. According to him the wages which were last drawn by him are not the minimum wages payable today. It is submitted on behalf of the applicant that he would be entitled to statutory minimum wages under Section 17-B as these were the wages which were being paid to him while he was in service. It is, therefore, submitted that the amount which he is entitled to 2 CAW No.54.10 as the last drawn wages is the statutory minimum wage for the engineering industry. 2. The learned advocate for the respondent submits that the applicant is entitled to “full wages last drawn” under Section 17-B of the I.D.Act. He submits that this necessarily means only the wages that he was drawing when his services were terminated. He relies on the judgment in the case of Dena Bank v/s Kiritikumar T. Patel, reported in (1999) 2 SCC 106. The Supreme Court has, in para 21 of this judgment considered the expression, “full wages last drawn” and its interpretation. Para 21 reads as follows:- “As indicated earlier, Section 17-B has been enacted by parliament with a view to give relief to a workman who has been ordered to be reinstated under the award of a Labour Court or the Industrial Tribunal during the pendency of proceedings in which the said award is under challenge before the High Court or the Supreme Court. The object underlying the provision is to relieve to a certain extent the hardship that is caused to the workman due to delay in the implementation of the award. The payment which is required to be made by the employer to the workman is in the nature of subsistence allowance which would not be refundable or recoverable from the workman even if the award is set aside by the High Court or this Court. Since the payment is of such a character, Parliament thought it proper to limit it to the extent of the wages which were drawn by the workman when he was in service and when his services were terminated and therefore used the words “full wages last drawn”. To read these words to mean wages which would have been drawn by the workman if he had continued in service if the order terminating his services had not passed since it has been set aside by the award of the Labour Court or the Industrial Tribunal, would result 3 CAW No.54.10 in so enlarging the benefit as to comprehend the relief that has been granted under the award that is under challenge. Since the amount is not refundable or recoverable in the event of the award being set aside, it would result in the employer being required to give effect to the award during the pendency of the proceedings challenging the award before the High Court or the Supreme Court without his being able to recover the said amount in the event of the award being set aside. We are unable to construe the provisions contained in Section 17-B to cast such a burden on the employer. In our opinion, therefore, the words “full wages last drawn” must be given their plain and material meaning and they cannot be given the extended meaning as given by the Karnataka High Court in Visveswaraya Iron & steel Ltd. or the Bombay High Court in Carona Sahu Co. Ltd.” 3. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the aforesaid case, the applicant would only be entitled to full wages last drawn under Section 17-B of the I.D. Act. The amount of Rs.1500/- which he is admittedly earning per month shall be deducted from this amount. 4. The respondent Company shall pay wages under Section 17-B of the I.D.Act at the rate of full wages last drawn, less Rs.1500/- per month. The amount shall be paid from 5.11.2009 and shall be continued to be paid during the pendency of the writ petition. 5. The arrears to be paid within four weeks from today. 6. The civil application is disposed of accordingly. .....