The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State government to take action to get the five Government Orders (GOs), which were issued last year over revision of minimum wages for 68 scheduled employments, notified in the Gazette.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, hearing a PIL petition over revision of minimum wages for workers, gave six weeks of time for the government to respond on the matter.
The petitioner’s counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar explained to the Bench that it’s the bounden duty of the government to revise minimum wages for the 68 scheduled employments.
For workers with Variable Dearness Allowance facility, the wages should be revised for every five years. For those without that option, the period is two years. Mr. Prabhakar, while presenting his arguments, contended that the government failed to revise the minimum wages for the past one decade. “The last revision was done in 2012,” he claimed.
As the counsel continued to make submissions, the CJ observed the matter did not require arguments since the government was bound to revise the minimum wages as per the statute. When the Bench noted that government should be directed to get the GOs published in Gazette, Special Government Pleader Sanjeev Kumar said the government had to re-issue the orders since the industries raised objections.
After hearing both the sides, the Bench instructed the government to take action to get the GOs published in the Gazette, giving it six weeks of time.
In a separate matter, Justice P. Madhavi Devi of the High Court directed the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board to exclude four questions from the main examination convened for selection of candidates for the posts of police constables, and award four marks to all candidates who appeared for the test. The judge instructed the authorities to re-evaluate papers after addition of marks and publish results before proceeding further.
A batch of writ petitions were filed by some candidates stating that some questions were wrongly framed while some questions were given without relevant translation in Telugu. The judge pronounced verdict allowing the petitions. Recently, the board had announced results of the examination and was heading for completion of the recruitment while this new order was pronounced.
