The Telangana High Court issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed assailing the appointment of respondent as Chairman of Minimum Wages Advisory Board for the State of Telangana vide notification issued under GO Labour Employment Training & Factories (Lab-I) Department dated 24.05.2023.
Adverting to Section 9 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 , Prabhakar Chikkudu ,counsel for the petitioner submits that the Chairman is required to be an independent person, which means that he should not have any party affiliation.
However, he has drawn attention of the High Court to the GO of Labour Employment Training & Factories (Labour) Department dated 05.12.2016 to show that petitioner was appointed as a member of the Board, being the State General Secretary of Telangana Rashtra Samithi Karmikha Vibhagam (TRSKV); now he has been upgraded as Chairman of the Board, which is contrary to the letter and spirit of Section 9 of the Act.
Prabhakar has also raised an issue that though there are a large number of women employees, there is no women member in the Board.
While considering the PIL , the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji issued notice to the respondents and posted the matter on 07.07.2023 for further hearing.