The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for final hearing on August 6 a batch of petitions newspaper managements had filed to challenge the Justice Majithia Wage Board’s recommendations for journalists and non-journalists. A new Bench of Justices C.K. Prasad and Ranjana Desai took the decision after senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), submitted that it would require at least five weeks for completion of the hearing.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ms. Desai started hearing the matter on February 5. The hearing went on for more than two weeks, but the final hearing could not be concluded because Justice Alam, who was presiding over the Forest Bench, took up certain important matters in March. As he retired on April 18, the matter could not be taken up by that Bench and was adjourned to July 9. Besides ABP Ltd., Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., publishers of The Times of India , and other newspapers, and the INS have challenged the report and its notification.
