Delhi: High Court directs govt, DDU college to review pending salaries of professors
Sep 19, 2020
New Delhi [India], September 19 : The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Government, and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) College to look into the matter pertaining to the pending salaries of Delhi University (DU) professors since May 2020.
Justice Jyoti Singh said that since it is a serious matter, the government and the college must look into it and listed the matter for further consideration on October 6.
"In my view, this is a serious matter and needs to be looked into by the Government of NCT of Delhi as well as the College without any delay and on priority," said Justice Singh.
"Contentions made by the college and the government of NCT of Delhi only prima facie give an impression to the court that both the authorities are blaming each other, instead of ensuring that the salary and the other benefits of the employees are released on time," the court said.
"The net result, however, of this blame game is that the petitioners have been deprived of not only their salary and other emoluments with effect from May 2020 but also other essentials such as reimbursement of medical bills, etc," the court added.
The court was hearing a petition filed by various associate professors and professors working in DDU College including Anurag Mishra.
Advocate M. Dutta, Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi and Aditya Guha, appearing for the petitioners said that the DDU college is a constituent college of the University of Delhi receiving 100 percent grant-in-aid from the Government of Delhi. The counsel said that the principal contention of the petitioners in the present petition is that their salaries, including medical bills and other retiral benefits wherever due have not been disbursed since the month of May 2020.
Advocate Jawahar Raja, Additional Standing Counsel appearing for the Delhi government submitted that there is no doubt that the college receives 100 percent grant-in-aid from the government but special audit for the college is underway at present.
He submitted that prima facie, it has been observed that the fee of the students is being diverted into a student society fund and that the college has substantial resources to meet the expenses of the College, including the salary and emoluments of the teachers as well as non-teaching staff.
Grant-in-aid, he submitted, is based on a net deficit basis which depends on the revenue minus
net expenses incurred by the college and that the college at present in the special audit is resisting disclosing all its assets and other resources.
He submitted that written communication in this regard has also been sent to the college and on receipt of the necessary information, requisite action will be taken. He sought a period of two weeks to inform the court of the outcome of the said proceedings.
DDU college counsel and advocate Beenashaw Soni, however, vehemently opposed and rebutted the submissions made by Raja and submitted that the Students' Fund is not meant for disbursement of the emoluments of the staff and the emoluments have to be paid only from the grant-in-aid received from the Delhi government.
The counsel also submitted that the management of the college is cooperating in the special audit being conducted by the Delhi government.
