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‘Opposition to fixing minimum wages for beedi workers is abuse of law’
Our Legal Correspondent
Chennai, Oct. 4To oppose the move by the Tamil Nadu Government to fix minimum wages for workers of the beedi industry was a ‘clear abuse of the process of law’, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has held.
The Supreme Court has held that non-payment of minimum wages was violative of Article 23 of the Constitution. This was on the premise that minimum wage was rock bottom of a wage scale, the Madurai Bench averred, while dismissing a batch of writ petitions by the Tamil Nadu beedi manufacturers praying for forbearing the State from notifying or altering minimum wages without following procedures by appointing a committee as contemplated under Section 5 of Minimum Wages Act, 1948 before fixing minimum wages for beedi industry.
Mr Justice K. Chandru, who heard the petitions, ruled that a State, mandated by a statutory preparation, was not expected to deviate from the provisions of law. It was not judicial function of the Court to give advice to State as to how it should implement laws at every stage. Hence, the above writ petitions could never be entertained, he said and dismissed them.When safeguards were provided to employers, it was not open to petitioners to come forward and say that the Government must be directed to follow provisions of the Act. In fact, during the last wage fixation in 1991, the petitioners had stalled wage fixation for 3 years through court proceedings. Now, when it was time for revision of minimum wages, after a period of 16 years, and the petitioners could not seek to derail it by filing petitions, the judge held.
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