Kerala HC lashes out at KSRTC for non-payment of pending salaries to employees

Kochi (Kerala) [India], August 19 : Kerala High Court on Thursday strongly criticised the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) for not disbursing the pending salary of its employees.
While hearing a petition, the court orally remarked that it is not just a matter of delay but a matter of complete failure if the government refuses to provide funds.
Mentioning the festival of Onam next month, Single Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran said, "When the world is celebrating Onam, these people will be hungry."
Court further observed that "the assets of KSRTC should be utilised for the disbursing of the salaries of the employees. The single duty matter has not yet been decided because the salaries have not yet been paid. How can the employees be asked to work for 12 hours when they are not being paid their salaries?"
The Court was hearing a plea submitted by the KSRTC employees contending that they are not being paid salaries promptly.
Court's criticism came after it had directed KSRTC to disburse salaries to its employees for the months of June and July before August 10.
KSRTC submitted that there has been a delay in disbursing the salary for the month of July due to a lack of funds.
Meanwhile, the state government informed the Court that a high-level meeting was being convened regarding this. Following this, the court observed that "if the government was sincere about paying the money, they should have had the meeting earlier."
The High Court will consider the matter again on August 24.