The Supreme Court will pass an order today on a petition filed by the government seeking a stay on the High Court order that issued status quo on publication of gazette notification on implementing the recommendation of ninth wage board for journalists.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain fixed the date after concluding hearing on the government petition yesterday.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, who appeared for the government, told the SC that the writ petition which challenged legality of the ninth wage board and its recommendation is premature as the government is yet to issue any gazette notification on the recommendation.

The Newspaper Owners’ Association (Noab) can place their objection in 14 days after the gazette is issued, he said.

Meanwhile, Noab’s lawyer Advocate AF Hasan Arif opposed the government petition saying that the labour ministry is responsible for the formation of the wage board as per the rules of business, issued by the president. But the ninth wage board has been formed by the information ministry in violation of the rules of business, he argued.

On August 6, the HC issued the status quo for two months. The court also issued a rule asking the respondents to explain why the unilateral finalisation of the award by the ninth wage board without giving the stakeholders opportunity to raise objections to the recommendations should not be declared illegal.

At yesterday’s hearing, terming the initial writ petition against publishing the gazette notification premature, the attorney general said the petitioner filed it as they do not want to pay salary to journalists properly, reports BSS.

“The government is like a referee here. It would consider interests of both journalists and newspaper owners,” he said.

“Without journalists, newspaper owners do not have any existence,” the court observed at the time.