HC declines to stay AAP's minimum wage notification

The Delhi High Court has declined to stay the AAP government's decision taken in October last year to enhance the minimum wages to be paid to workers in the city.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said there was no need for the Delhi government to presume any stay against the notification of October 22, 2019 merely because notice was issued in the petition and applications challenging it.

"It cannot be said that till the notice is made returnable, the respondent-government shall deem as if stay is granted by this court. In other words, there is no need for the respondents to presume any stay against the impugned notification," the bench said while dismissing an application of the Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry of NCT Delhi.

The organisation had filed the application seeking a stay on the notification in its main petition, seeking to set aside the Delhi government's decision to enhance the minimum wages for unskilled workers to Rs 14,842 per month, Rs 16,341 per month for semi-skilled workers and Rs 17,991 per month for skilled workers.

The court further said when notice was already issued in the main petition and an earlier application for stay, and when stay was not granted, another plea for the same relief was not maintainable.

The bench also said, "It ought to be kept in mind that when this court had already issued notice in the earlier stay application and not granted any stay, the petitioner has no option but to follow the impugned notification and cannot avoid doing so by filing repeated stay applications."