Law: Payment of Wages Act (IV of 1936)

Section: 17, 15

Law: Pakistan Railway Establishment Code

Section: II, r. 2044

Law: Civil Procedure Code (V of 1908)

Section: 115

(a) Payment of Wages Act (IV of 1936), .S'. 17--District Judge hearing appeal under S. 17-Dues not act as persona designata but as a District Court subordinate to High Court-Orders passed by District Judge under S. 17, held, revisable by High Court-Civil Procedure Code (V of 1908), S. 115. It was contended that the order passed by District Judge in appeal under section 17 of Payment of Wages Act, 1936 was not amenable to the revisional jurisdiction of the High Court as the District Judge while hearing an appeal under section 17 of the Act is not subordinate to the High Court but acts only as persona designata. Held under section 17 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 an appeal against the direction issued by the Authority lies before the District Courts. The Act has, therefore, itself provided a forum for filing the appeals unlike the West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance, 1959 where the Provincial Government has to make an appointment and it may or may not appoint the Civil Judge as Rent Controller. The word District' as defined under section 2(iv) of Civil Procedure Code means the local limits of the jurisdiction of a principal civil Court of original jurisdiction (hereinafter called a "District Court"), and includes the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of a High Court. Section 3 of the Civil Procedure Code speaks of the subordination of the Courts' which lays down that for the purpose of Civil Procedure Code, the District Court is subordinate to the High Court. Therefore, when the jurisdiction is conferred by a special law on a District Court by designation whether original or appellate, the District Court being subordinate to the High Court, its order will be revisable by the High Court under section 115, C. P. C. For these reasons when a District Judge hears an appeal under section 17 of the Act he functions in exercise of his ordinary judicial capacity as Presiding Officer of a principal civil Court in a district and does not act as persona designata. The District Judge while hearing appeals under section 17 of the Act is not only a Court but is also subordinate to the High Court and in cases where as…