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Gomantak Mazdoor Sangh vs State of Goa & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 546Decided 10 May 2022
Civil Appeal No. 2982 of 2022
M.R. Shah · B.V. Nagarathna

Background

The Goa Government issued a notification on 23/24.05.2016 fixing minimum wages under Section 4(1)(i) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948: a basic wage plus a separate variable dearness (special) allowance. Nearly two months later, the State issued an "Errata Notification" purporting to correct a "clerical mistake," changing the legal basis to Section 4(1)(iii), an all-inclusive rate that effectively removed the separate special allowance and reduced workers' overall minimum wage. A trade union (Gomantak Mazdoor Sangh) challenged the errata before the Bombay High Court (Goa Bench), which upheld the State's correction and dismissed the union's writ petition, prompting this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the original notification was issued only after a full statutory process (a draft notification, objections and representations from labour unions, and deliberate consideration of the demand for a variable dearness allowance) showing it reflected a conscious policy decision, not a clerical slip. Under Section 10 of the Minimum Wages Act, the government may correct only clerical or arithmetical errors or accidental slips, not revisit a deliberate decision; and even under the General Clauses Act's general power to vary notifications, the same procedure used to make the original notification (consultation, objections) would have to be followed again, which was not done here. The Court therefore quashed the Errata Notification as issued without jurisdiction, restored the original 23/24.05.2016 notification (with the special allowance), and allowed the appeal with no costs.

Lesson Learnt

A government cannot use a "correction of clerical error" power to quietly reverse a substantive policy decision that was reached only after due public consultation: any real change to such a decision must go through the same statutory procedure used to make it.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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