JUDGMENT Kanhaiya Lal, J.
1. This is an application for the transfer of a proceeding pending against certain labourers under Section 2 of the Workman's Breach of Contract Act (XIII of 1859), as amended by Act XII of 1920. The employer is a resident of Moradabad and carries on a stone ballast business in Shankergarh in the District of Allahabad. He advanced money to certain labourers and employed them for the purpose of working at Shankergarh. His complaint was that after working for a little while they disappeared. That complaint is being enquired into by one of the Magistrates at Moradabad. The labourers are resident of Shankergarh and desire that the complaint should be enquired into in the District of Allahabad where the alleged breach of contract is said to have taken place. It is admitted that the advances were made at Shankergarh and that, if any breach of contract took place, it must have taken place at Shankergarh too. The witnesses are all said to belong to the same place. It is, therefore, conducive to the convenience of the parties, if the case is enquired into at Allahabad. It is urged on behalf of the employer that the Workman's Breach of Contract Act intends that such enquiry should be made at the place where the master or employer resides and carries on business. The Act does not, however, lay down the procedure which is to regulate such an enquiry. It is an enquiry by a Magistrate or a Criminal Court within the meaning of Section 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and, although the object of the enquiry is merely to issue coercive orders, and, if necessary, to enforce the same by a sentence of imprisonment, there is nothing to show that such an enquiry is excluded from the operation of Section 526 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The definition of "enquiry" given in Section 4, Clause (k), which includes every enquiry other than a trial conducted under the Code of Criminal Procedure by a Magistrate or a Court, is not exhaustive so as to exclude an enquiry under the Workman's Breach of Contract Act of the nature above referred to. Any enquiry by a Magistrate or a Criminal Court subordinate to this Court can, therefore, be transferred under Section 526, Criminal Procedure Code, to any Criminal Court of equal or superior jurisdiction subordinate to its authority, if the requisite grounds set forth in the section are established. The balance of convenience is undoubtedly in favour of the transfer of the criminal proceeding from Moradabad to Allahabad. The application is, therefore, allowed and the proceeding transferred to the Court of the District Magistrate of Allahabad who can try the case himself or send it for trial to any Magistrate subordinate to him who may be competent to try the same.