Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday asked the central government not to implement the recommendations of the National Wage Board for journalists and other employees for the next two weeks.

The Board, headed by Justice G.R. Majithia, was set up in 2007. It submitted its report Dec 31, 2010

Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Verma, however, did not pass any formal order restraining the union government from implementing the recommendations.

The order came during the hearing of a petition by the Ananda Bazar Patrika media group, which said the wage revisions were being sought to be implemented without the industry getting a copy of the report.

The Justice Majithia Wage Board was set up after a gap of over a decade. It had made recommendations for all newspaper employees.

Appearing for the media group, senior counsel Fali Nariman said the copy of the report was given only to the government.

Counsel for the federation of newspaper employees, Parmanand Pandey, told the court not to stay the implementation of the wage board recommendations as the staff had been awaiting wage revision for nearly for a decade.

Additional Solicitor General Parag P. Tripathi told the court that the implementation of the wage board recommendations could not be blocked on the plea of a single newspaper.

The court asked the government to give a copy of the report to the petitioner within a week, and granted another week to the newspaper group to present its case.