Delhi: HC equates teachers with corona warriors, pulls up north body over salaries

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the North Delhi Municipal Corporation over non-payment of salaries to teachers who are also deployed on Covid-19

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the North Delhi Municipal Corporation over non-payment of salaries to teachers who are also deployed on Covid-19 duty, while stating that it is a “sorry state of affairs” where the teachers, who can be equated to corona warriors, have not been paid salaries since the lockdown was imposed.

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Taking strong note of the non-payment of salaries to the safai karamcharis and the teachers, a bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad took suo moto cognizance of the issue and converted it into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which would be listed before Chief justice DN Patel on June 30.

The high court’s order comes on a plea by the Akhil Dilli Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, representing teachers who are teaching in the north corporation’s schools, challenging a June 9 order by a single judge which had dismissed their plea, to direct the civic body to release their salaries that have not been paid since March 2020.

“This is a sorry state of affairs. Teachers belong to one of the noble professions and as they are made to do Covid-19 duty also, they can be equated to Covid-19 warriors. Despite that, they have been deprived of their dues since March 2020,” the bench said.

On Friday, the court was informed by the counsels for the north corp that there are 700 schools under the jurisdiction of the civic body and 9,000 teachers. However, only 3,500 teachers had been deployed on Covid duties on a rotational basis, which the facilities continued till mid-June.

As of now, there are 90 dry ration distribution centres being operated from the north body’s schools with approximately 800 teachers engaged in duties there. The liability for the release of salaries of these 3,500 teachers, who were involved in Covid-19 duties, is approximately Rs 25 crores per month.

In a status report, the civic body said that the Delhi government, instead of implementing the fourth Delhi Finance Commission (DFC), implemented the 5th DFC from April 1, 2016 in the year 2019. It said that the Delhi government has still not implemented the recommendations of the 4th DFC, despite categorical directions by various orders. It further said that the Delhi government is liable to pay Rs 968.97 crore under 4th DFC from April 2012 to March 31, 2016. The municipal corporation added that they do not have funds to disburse salaries even for teachers.

However, the Delhi government, in its report, said they have already released Rs 49.17 crore for teachers’ salaries for April 2020. Funds for salaries for the month of May have also been sanctioned, the state government said, adding that the payments are being made monthly instead of on a quarterly basis due to the pandemic.

Expressing displeasure, the bench said, “It is deemed appropriate to convert this petition into a suo motu petition… The Delhi government is directed to file an affidavit responding to the averments made by the North DMC within one week. List before the roster bench for appropriate order on June 30,” the bench said.

It noted that payments to the teachers for the month of March were paid only this morning, after the court directed the corporation to pay the salaries on June 18.

The matter would be now heard on June 30.

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