The obligation to pay minimum wages as per the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and MREGS 2006 is enforceable by the court.

JUDGMENT :

V.P. Vaish, J.

The petitioner, Mr. Foyzar Rahman has filed the present petition praying, inter-alia, the following relief:

"In The Premises aforesaid it humbly prayed that Your Lordship may be pleased to admit this writ petition, call for the records and issue rule upon the Respondents to show cause as to why the payment of wage should not be made as per the minimum wage rate i.e. Rs. 145 per days work to job card holder for their 14 days of work, upon cause or causes being shown and upon hearing the parties may be pleased to direct the respondent No. 5 to make payment to the petitioner as well as other job card holder for 14 days of work at the minimum rate of wage of Rs. 145 per day and or pass such necessary order/orders Your Lordship may deem fit and proper."

2. Briefly stating, the case of the petitioner is that in exercise of the powers conferred by sub section (1) of Section-4 of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (NREGA), Meghalaya Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MREGS) 2006 was notified. The petitioner was issued job card under MREGS scheme of the village for execution of the project construction of road by respondent No. 4. Thereafter, respondent No. 5 submitted muster roll of 44 days work of the job card holder to the respondent No. 4 for payment of wages. Respondent No. 4 as per the muster roll submitted by respondent No. 5 has credited the amount for 14 days wages in the account of Village Employment Council (VEC) of respondent No. 5 at the minimum rate of wage of Rs. 145/- per day which was withdrawn by respondent No. 5. However, respondent No. 5 had paid the wages less than the minimum wages at the rate of Rs. 145/- per day for 14 days work.

3. It is also stated by the petitioner that in the first week of May, 2015, respondent No. 5 withdrew the amount for another 14 days wages for payment to be made to all the job card holders at the rate of Rs. 145/- per day. However, respondent No. 5 was paying less amount of Rs. 1,000/- to some of the job card holders instead of Rs. 2030/- for their legitimate dues for 14 days of completed work.

4. Being aggrieved by the denial of wages at the minimum rate, without assigning any reason the petitioner has filed the present petition.

5. Respondent No. 4 has filed an affidavit of Shri Pittingson R Sangma, Block Development Officer/Programme Officer (MGNREGS). The relevant paras of the affidavit read as under:

"5. That the statements made in paragraphs 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of the Writ Petition is hereby denied. The humble Answering Deponent begs to state that an amount of Rs. 9,72,920-/- (Rupees Nine Lakhs, Seventy Two Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty) only was sanctioned to Gomaijhora (M) VEC, for construction of Road vide Order dated 09-01-2013 and also sanctioned additional amount of Rs. 8,16,900/- (Rupees Eight Lakhs, Sixteen Thousand, Nine Hundred) only, dated 10-12-2013 for 44 (Forty four) days work was sanctioned under MGNREGS Scheme, at the rate of Rs. 145/- per day for single job card holder and it is not the fact that the Respondent No.4 referred the matter to Lok Adalat, but Respondent No.3 referred the dispute arose between the Job Card Holders and Secretary, Gomaijhora (M) VEC, and the matter was settled in Lok Adalat and thereafter the previous VEC Committee was dissolved and fresh election was held on 25.03.2015, in which the Respondent No. 5 was elected as a Secretary, Gomaijhora (M) VEC, by the Job Card Holders and approved the VEC vide Memo No. Sel/Aptt/MG/MGNREGS/2015/03-A, dated 01-04-2015 by the answering Deponent and thereafter no work order was sanctioned to the said VEC.

6. That the statements made in paragraphs 15, 16 and 17 are hereby denied. The answering Deponent begs to state that after receiving the complaints from the Public and Job Card holders, he directed the Additional Programme Officer, to enquire into the allegation for non receiving of wages by Job Card Holders of the said VEC however, the Complainant groups has not come