Jammu and Kashmir High Court: A Single Judge Bench comprising of Sanjeev Kumar, J., dismissed the current writ petition invoked for quashing the order of the district judge whereby the appeal of the petitioner was held as non maintainable and the order passed by the Assistant Labour Commissioner regarding the payment of wages to the employees was upheld.
The facts of the case are that a few employees had filed for payment of their withheld wages. The application was filed much after the period of limitation, prescribed under the Payment of Wages Act. The application was accompanied by an application for condonation of delay. The Assistant Labour Commissioner while exercising the discretionary powers allowed the condonation application. The petitioner thus filed an appeal which was dismissed. The impugned order dismissing the appeal was under question here.
The Court upholding the decision of the District Judge and Assistant Labour Commissioner said that condonation of the delay is a discretionary order and had been passed by the Authority after considering the stand taken by the rival parties. It has taken note of the social welfare nature of the legislation, i.e., the Payment of Wages Act, which is enacted for the benefit of workers who are denied wages for the work they render by the employer by misusing their higher bargaining powers and fiduciary relationship. The petition was thus dismissed. [Division Forest Officer, Bandipora v. Assistant Labour Commissioner,2018 SCC OnLine J&K 955, decided on 04-12-2018]