The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre if it was willing to consider opening its purse strings to pay higher wages to agricultural labourers employed under its flagship job guarantee scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The thought got provoked after the Karnataka High Court on September 23, 2011 ruled that under the Central scheme, the agricultural workers should be entitled to minimum wages fixed by the State Government, in this case being `119 per day in Karnataka. This was not acceptable to the Centre which had capped the daily wages at `100. Hearing an appeal by the Centre challenging the HC order, the apex bench of Justices Cyriac Joseph and Gyan Sudha Misra said, “This is not an adversarial litigation…What are you (Centre) resisting payments under Minimum Wages Act (MWA).” The Karnataka HC ruled that Section 6 (1) of the MNREGA could not be invoked to fix wage rate lower than what was prescribed under the MWA, 1948 and quashed the Government notification on wage rate of January 2009 and ordered payment of arrears to the workers in Karnataka. Solicitor General RF Nariman, who appeared for the Centre agreed to take instructions in this regard. However, his request to stay the HC order was partially accepted by the bench. The SC stayed that part of the HC decision directing the workers to recover arrears from the Centre. Considering the total strength of daily wage farmers employed under MNREGA, the Centre cried foul over the huge financial burden such a decision would cause to the public exchequer. While Nariman chose not to touch upon the sensitive nature of the case with different voices within the Government standing in support and opposition to the Karnataka HC decision, the dilemma within the Government was exposed by senior advocate Anil Divan, appearing for the farmers who approached the HC under the banner — Karnataka Prantiya Raita Sangh.