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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 4, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Karnataka High Court has quashed the Karnataka government's notifications to fix minimum wages in the cloth, dyeing, printing, textile, and spinning mills industry. The high court said that the state government's 2023 notifications are violative of Section 5 of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, which states the precise legal procedure the "appropriate government" must follow when initially fixing or later revising minimum wage rates for scheduled employment.

 

The high court said that the wages fixed by the state government under its notification in 2023 appeared to be lower than the wages fixed in a 2017 notification. If there are strong compelling reasons for such a downward revision, the state government may reduce the wages, the court said. However, such compelling reasons were not given by the state government in its 2023 notifications, said the court. Wages in some states being lower cannot necessarily be the criterion for downward revision of wages in all circumstances, it said. 

 

The state government, if deemed fit, may revise the minimum wages fixed with respect to its 2017 notification for the applicable period up to five years from 2017, the court said. Till such wages are fixed, the workers are entitled to minimum wages fixed according to the 2017 notification, with 6% interest, it said. 

 

The high court was hearing petitions by the Garments and Textile Workers Union and others challenging the government’s 2023 notifications. The petitioners said the state government had not followed the procedures contemplated under the 1948 Act. The petitioner said that while other industries such as clay, pottery and ceramics were granted a basic rate of INR 615.07 per day, the garment industry has been unfairly restricted to a basic rate of INR 401.07 per day, demonstrating a discriminatory approach.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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