HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the Telangana government to file a counter affidavit on a PIL seeking regularization of services of about 55,000 employees working in gram panchayats in the state.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice SV Bhatt was dealing with a public interest litigation by Rajarapu Prathap of Warangal district seeking directions to the government to pay salaries and regularize services of the employees with gram panchayats in accordance with the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Contract Labour (Prohibition and Regularise) Act, 1970.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the government had failed to pay salaries to the gram panchayat employees in accordance with the Minimum Wages Act.
In all, some 55,000 employees are working in about 8,000 gram panchayats he added. He urged the court to declare the government’s action as illegal and arbitrary. After hearing the case, the bench issued a notice to the government for filing a counter in the case and posted the matter to July 6 for further hearing.