Delhi HC verdict to put financial stress on workers: Kejriwal
New Delhi, Aug 5 : A day after the Delhi High Court quashed the state government's notification on minimum wages, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the ruling will put a huge financial stress on workers.
"Large number of daily wage earners in Delhi started getting increased wages of Rs 13,500 per month instead of Rs 9,500 for more than a year. With HC judgement, suddenly, their wages will be reduced. They will be put under huge financial stress. A huge setback for them," Kejriwal said in a series of tweets.
The court on Saturday quashed two notifications issued by the Kejriwal government last year, one for revision of minimum wages for all scheduled employments and the other for setting up of an advisory panel for the purpose.
The Chief Minister claimed that some employers are, in the wake of the HC verdict, planning to recover the increased wages which they had paid for the last one year.
"If that starts happening, it will bring untold miseries to the poor," Kejriwal tweeted.
In its verdict, the court observed that the committee's recommendations and the Delhi government's notifications had completely ignored the vital and critical aspects that had a material bearing on the issue.
The HC order came on several PIL petitions including the one filed by Social Jurist, a civil rights group, which had pleaded that the hike in wages was unreasonably low and as such violated the workers' fundamental right to life.
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BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
