Delhi HC seeks fresh status report on North DMC school teachers' salaries
Jul 21, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 21 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi government and the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) to file fresh status reports to update it on the status of the release of funds and salaries of the North DMC school teachers.
A division bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice S Prasad, which was hearing a suo motu petition related to pending salaries of North DMC school teachers, sought the status reports and listed the matter for further hearing on August 5.
Advocate Mini Pushkarna, the standing counsel of the North DMC, submitted that the salaries of all the teachers employed by its schools have been paid for the month of March and April and that the salaries of 5,406 teachers on COVID duty were released on July 14.
Pushkarna said that the salaries of the remaining teachers for the month of April would be released by the end of July. However, that would still leave the months of May and June, the High Court observed.
Delhi government, in its status report, had stated that the grant-in-aid payable by the Delhi government to the North DMC for release of salaries to its teachers (under the scheme of primary education) was to the tune of Rs 147 crores for the first quarter of this year.
"The said amount was released in three monthly tranches, for the months of April, May and June. As for the grant-in-aid required to be released by the Delhi government for the second quarter, Delhi government told the court that the payment for the month of July of Rs 49.17 crores, will be released by the end of July and similarly, the remaining two tranches of the like amount at the end of August and September," Delhi government had said.
North DMC submitted before the court that the remaining amount payable to the teachers employed by the municipal corporation in their schools is generated internally but due to the orders passed by the Supreme Court in the case titled 'Dr Arushi Jain Vs Union of India', it is required to release the salaries of sanitation workers, health workers and doctors who are on COVID duty on top priority.
"The Delhi Government has not released its share of the salaries payable to the sanitation workers, health worker and doctors. Only in the first week of July has the Delhi government released its share of salaries payable to the doctors for the months of April, May and June. But Delhi government has yet to release its share of the salaries payable to the sanitation workers," North Delhi Municipal Corporation added.
