9th Wage Board for Journos: SC asks HC to expeditiously dispose of rules

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the High Court to expeditiously hear and dispose of the rules issued over the legality of the gazette regarding the 9th wage board for journalists and workers of newspapers and news agencies.   

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after disposing of two separate leave to appeal petitions filed by Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (Noab) and the government.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state at the hearing, along with Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Debnath. Senior advocate AM Amin Uddin appeared on behalf of Noab, accompanied by lawyer Md Yusuf Ali.

Yusuf Ali later told this newspaper that Noab’s petition was filed seeking stay on the gazette implementation. The Appellate Division has ordered the HC to expeditiously dispose of the appeal and rule, he added. 

On October 15 last year, the HC issued a rule questioning legality of the gazette notification, following a supplementary appeal on a writ petition.

The HC will hear on the rule now, Yusuf Ali said.

However, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the status quo issued by the High Court remains stayed. The SC disposed of the state’s leave to appeal by keeping the previous stay order in effect. There is no bar to implement the 9th wage board for now, he opined.

The information ministry on September 12 last year published a gazette notification on the new wage scale.