CWP No. 12734 of 2011 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 12734 of 2011 Date of decision : 21.07.2011 Phool Singh ....Petitioner versus Authority under the Minimum Wages Act, Panipat-2 and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present: Mr. Rishu Mahajan, Advocate for Mr. Harkesh Muneja, Advocate for the petitioner. **** RITU BAHRI, J. (Oral) Challenge in this petition is to the order dated 11.05.2009 whereby application under Section 20(2) of the Payment of Wages Act (for short “the Act”), filed by the petitioner was dismissed. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner had filed an application under Section 20 (2) of the Act before the Authority under the Minimum Wages Act, Panipat-2-respondent No. 1 (for brevity 'respondent- authority') (Annexure P-1) but the same was rejected on the ground that since the claim had been filed after the expiry of six months, therefore, the petition was not maintainable in view of Section 20(2) of the Minimum Wages Act. Thereafter, reference has been made to earlier application dated 28.01.2008,which was well within six months. This application was subsequently CWP No. 12734 of 2011 -2- withdrawn on 18.03.2008 and thereafter, the present petition had been filed again on 15.04.2008. The petitioner is a poor labourer and did not have sufficient means to pursue his litigation, as such, respondent No. 2 cannot be granted benefit of any kind of delay on the part of the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner has further argued that the original petition was filed within the statutory period of six month. After going through the facts of the present case, the petition is allowed and the order dated 11.05.2009 is set aside and a direction is given to treat the application of the petitioner and pass appropriate orders. July 21, 2011 (RITU BAHRI) G.Arora JUDGE