DECIDE MINIMUM WAGES AFRESH, SC TELLS GOVT

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi government to undertake a fresh exercise to determine minimum wages for employees of private organisations.

A bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi prima facie found fault with the decision-making process that led to a revision in the minimum wages, notified in March 2017. The bench was hearing Delhi government’s appeal against the High Court order that quashed the notification.

As an interim measure, the court allowed operation of the March notification for three months, the time given to the AAP government to complete the fresh exercise. The fixation, court specified, must be in accordance to the provisions under the Minimum Wages Act. The top court said the Delhi government’s appeal, filed by advocate Chiraf M Shroff, will be kept pending and ordered no arrears would be distributed on the basis of old notification. Arrears would be computed once the new wages are notified.

At the outset CJI Gogoi and the other judges — justices UU Lalit and KM Joseph — put a question mark on the procedure followed to determine the wages. On March 5, 2017 the state had announced a 37% hike in minimum wages following a board recommendation to that effect.

CJI Gogoi was of the view that the constitution of advisory committee was not as per the legal requirement.

Representatives of both sides — employers and employees — were also part of the panel, senior advocate Dushyant Dave told the bench on behalf of the Delhi government.