Law: Payment of Wages Act, 1936

Section: 15

(a) Payment of Wages Act (IV of 1936)---- ----S. 15----Claim out of deduction for wages or delay in payment of wages and penalty for malicious and vexatious claims---Ex-gratia grant not included in the term 'wages'---Ex-gratia amount being discretionary in nature could not be claimed as of right---Jurisdiction of the Authority to entertain claim under S.15 of Payment of Wages Act, 1936---Scope---'Amount payable'---Meaning---Press clippings---Evidentiary value---Respondents, who were daily wagers, filed claims under S.15 of Payment of Wages Act, 1936 against its employer Bank claiming payments of emoluments, including ex-gratia grant, on basis of of Supreme Court, in which the Bank, pursuant to its 'Retrenchment Scheme', had agreed to pay additional sum of ex-gratia grant to certain number of its retrenched employees---Both the Authority and Labour Court accepted the claim as put forth---Contention raised by the Bank was that the Authority had no power to deal with the matter regarding ex-gratia grant, and that the respondents, having been retrenched and being daily wagers, had no vested right to any emoluments, and that respondents had already received emoluments under settlement with the Bank, for which they had also executed undertakings with averments that they would withdraw the pending cases---Respondents took plea that ex-gratia amount was covered under the term 'any sum payable' in S.2(vi) of Payment of Wages Act, 1936, and that of Supreme Court being a verdict in rem was applicable to all retrenched employees irrespective to their status, and that they had been discriminated against other employees---Validity---In terms of S.2(vi) of Payment of Wages Act, 1936, amount of ex-gratia grant was not included in "wages"---Ex-gratia was an amount paid by employer out of grace or good will---Nothing was available on record to show that any express or implied contract existed between the Bank and respondents to the effect that a particular amount would be paid to the employees of the Bank as ex-gratia grant---Expression 'Amount payable' meant that anything which was due on account of any legal or vested right, expressed or implied, but ex-gratia grant being…