Sri Achutha Rao and Others vs Union of India (UOI)

V. Jagannathan, J.—All these petitions arise out of the recommendations of the Manisana Wage Board commonly known as "Rajkumar Manisana Singh Wage Board" which were accepted by the Central Government subject to certain modifications and notified on 5.12.2000 and 15.12.2002 and the Notifications itself are dated 5.12.2000 and 15.12.2002.

The Petitioners in W.P. Nos. 5226/10 and 6194-6206/10 are aggrieved by the Respondent Management i.e. R-3 not implementing the recommendations of the wage board referred to above and therefore these petitions have been filed praying for direction to the Respondent to take necessary action for issuing fresh Notification in the official gazette in respect of Manisana Wage Board Award and to direct the 3rd Respondent to implement the Manisana Wage Board Award as accepted by the Government of India with effect from 1.6.1999.

W.P. No. 14174/09 is Pled by the Management aggrieved by the representation given by it being rejected by the 1st Respondent in respect of certain recommendations made by the aforementioned wage board.

When the matter was taken up for hearing, an affidavit of the General Manager of the 3rd Respondent is filed and in terms of the averments made therein, learned Counsel for the 3rd Respondent as well as the Petitioners counsel in other writ petitions for the employees pray for disposal of these petitions.

However, in the affidavit filed by the aforementioned General Manager Sri. P.V. Mallya, in para.2 it is stated thus:

The above petition has been filed by the retired employees of 3rd Respondent herein seeking the writ of mandamus against the 3rd Respondent to implement the recommendations of the Manisana Wage Board. It is submitted that the 3rd Respondent has already implemented the recommendations of the Wage Board in respect to the existing employees with effect from 1.6.2009. Petitioners have already retired from the services of the 3rd Respondent. The 3rd Respondent management is willing to implement the recommendations of the Wage Board and pay the arrears of the wage to the Petitioners who are eligible to get the benefits as per the recommendations, within a period of six months from today.

The only modification that is sought by the learned Counsel Sri. R. Kiran for the Petitioners -employees is to limit the period to less than six months for implementation of the benefits to the employees.

Having heard both sides in regard to the time limit within which the benefits are to be given to the employees and, as many of the employees, according to the Petitioners counsel, are more than 60 years of age, the 3rd Respondent therefore will have to be given a period of maximum three months to implement the wage board recommendations.

For the aforementioned reasons, all the petitions are disposed of with the following direction:

The Respondent No. 3 shall pay the Petitioners - employees the benefits of wage board recommendations of Manisana Wage Board within a period of 90 days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and no further extension of time will be given under any circumstances.