128. Payment of wages before shipping master.-
(1) Where a seaman is discharged in India before a shipping master, the shall receive his wages through, or in the presence of, the shipping master unless a competent Court otherwise directs.
(2) If the master or owner of a home-trade ship of less than two hundred tons gross so desires the seamen of that ship may receive their wages in the same manner as seamen discharged from a foreign-going ship, or from a home-trade ship of two hundred tons gross or more.