Case Law Details
Central Secretariat Club Vs. Geetam Singh (Delhi High Court)
Non-payment of minimum wages, to a workman is, therefore, unconscionable and unpardonable in law. It strikes at the very root of our constitutional framework, and belies the aspirations set out in the preamble thereto. The preamble to the Constitution is the Constitution. It is the most basic feature or the basic structure of the Constitution which, it is trite, is inviolable and immune from amendment. Any attempt to erode the values enshrined in the preamble to our Constitution has, therefore, to be quelled with a heavy hand, if we are, as we profess to be, a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic”.
Any reluctance on the part of an employer, to award minimum wages for a workman for the period during which he had admittedly worked, is not only illegal and immoral but also invites criminal liability. Such an attitude erodes the very foundations of a socialist society which the preamble of the Constitution professes us to be, and belies the promises held out to every citizen by the Constitution of India.
The principle of limitation- and, equally, of delay and laches- is a principle of equity and repose. It cannot be invoked by one who practices inequity, or commits fraud on the Constitution. An employee who obtains work, from a workman, while denying him minimum wages, is, in my view, absolutely dis entitled from calling, into service, the doctrine of laches, when the employee moves the competent legal forum, seeking only minimum wages for the period during which he has served the employer. In that view of the matter, I am of the opinion that there was no justification for the Labour Court to restrict the relief awarded to Geetam Singh to the period October 1992 to September 1995. Geetam Singh has admittedly worked with the period 1st September 1989 to September, 1995 and cannot, therefore, be denied minimum wages for the said period. The Court can ill afford to be a party to the portentously criminal act of the Club.
Full Text of the High Court Judgment / Order is as follows:-
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