STATESMAN LIMITED Vs. GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Review Petition, at the instance of the Statesman Ltd., being the original petitioner in WP (C) 9497/2015, seeks review of judgment dtd. 18/11/2019, passed by me in the said writ petition.

(2.) The only ground on which the present Review Petition has been filed, and was argued, is that the judgment dtd. 18/11/2019 does not address the issue of jurisdiction of the Authority under the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, ("the Working Journalists Act') to pass the order dtd. 21/7/2015 forming subject matter of challenge in WP (C) 9497/2015.

(3.) The order dtd. 21/7/2015 disposes of the application by certain members of the Statesman Mazdoor Union, preferred under Sec. 17(1) of the Working Journalists Act, whereby the said applicants had sought payment of arrears as recommended by the Majithia Wage Board. The petitioner-Statesman contested their liability to make payment to the applicants in terms of the Wage Board on the ground that they had suffered heavy cash losses in three years prior to the implementation of the recommendations of the Wage Board which, therefore, exempted them from the requirement of payment of arrears. The order has examined the case of the applicants in detail and rejected the stand of the petitioner that it was not responsible to make payment to the applicants as recommended by the Wage Board. Para 7 of the said order dtd. 21/7/2015 refers to the reply filed by the petitioner-Statesman before the Authority: