Abp Pvt.Ltd.& Anr vs Union Of India & Ors

journalist newspaper employees in order to fix or revise the rates of wages. The relevant details of the preceding Wage Boards are as under:-

In brief, it was contended that in the present times of economic liberalization, the Act has become obsolete. As a result, Wage Boards have lost their utility and purpose for which they were set up and the 1955 Act have become outdated and have outlived its utility especially with the advent of the electronic media and other avenues.

24) For the ensuing two reasons, this Court is opting for not to interfere on this alleged ground of challenge. Firstly, the petitioners cannot espouse the grievance of those employees working in the electronic media for non-inclusion and, more particularly, when those employees are not before this Court. Secondly, the fact that similar benefits are not extended to the employees of other similar industry will not result in invalidation of benefit given to the employees of press industry. Recalling that media industry is still an upcoming sector unlike the press industry, which is as ancient as our independence itself, the scope for potential policies in future cannot be overruled. In view of the same, this ground of challenge is rejected.

In view of the fact that they have participated in the proceedings without seriously having challenged the constitution as well as the composition, the petitioners cannot now be allowed to challenge the same at this stage. More so, it is also pertinent to take note of the fact that the petitioners herein opted for challenging the independence of the nominated independent members only after the recommendations by the Wage Boards were notified by the Central Government.

Therefore, if at all anybody is aggrieved by the recommendation of the Wage Board to adopt eight classifications, it is the employees and not the employers. Further, no prejudice is caused to the employers and they cannot make this as a ground to challenge the report.

52) The petitioners also contended by relying upon two resolutions passed by the Wage Board that the Wage Board was not allowed to function independently and was treated with contempt by the Secretariat of the Wage Board and the officials of the Wage Board. One of the resolutions relied upon by the petitioners dealt with an issue pertaining to raising of exorbitant travel bill. It is brought to our notice that it was in this context that the Chairman and Members of the Wage Board expressed their concern that issues pertaining to the Wage Board should not be directly dealt with by the Ministry and it has to be referred to the Ministry by the Secretariat after obtaining the permission of the Chairman. The other resolution/minutes record the proceedings of the meeting with the Minister for Labour and Employment. These two resolutions cannot be relied upon to contend that the Board was not allowed to function independently and was treated with contempt. These two resolutions have no bearing on the ultimate recommendations made by the Board and, thus, cannot be relied upon by the petitioners to impugn the recommendations themselves.

54) It is the view of the petitioners that the recommendation of Justice Majithia Wage Boards is defective and faulty and deserves to be rejected at the outset as it overlooked the relevant aspects and considered extraneous factors while drafting the impugned report. The first ground on which the report is alleged to be defective is that the members of the Wage Board failed to consider the crucial element of capacity to pay of the individual newspaper establishments as it wrongly premised its analysis of the capacity to pay of ‘gross revenue’ while approving the impugned report.

According to them, the recommendation in this regard is totally unreasonable, irrational and places an extra and unnecessary burden on the newspaper establishments. Consequently, it was asserted that there is complete non-application of mind to insert the so-called variable pay concept (similar to Grade Pay of Sixth Pay Commission) in the Majithia Wage Board’s recommendation, even though the basic conditions, objectives and anomalies are absent.

……….…………………………CJI.

FEBRUARY 07, 2014.