Delhi HC stays order to Delhi-funded colleges to pay salaries from student fund

The court said instead of using the student fund, the state should have paid the salary to the college staff. The court transferred the matter to another court before whom similar matters are pending.

The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed the Delhi government October 16 order, asking 12 Delhi University colleges fully funded by it to pay outstanding salaries to staffers from the Students Society Fund.

Advocate Jivesh Tiwari, appearing for DUSU, said the fund is collected from students and is to be used for student welfare, and urged the high court to stay the government’s order. (Mint)

Justice Navin Chawla issued notice to Delhi University (DU) on a petition filed by the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), challenging the government’s order to colleges to pay the salaries of over 1,500 staff—both teaching and non-teaching—from the student fund and release the amount in two weeks.

A spokesperson of Delhi government refused to comment on the issue

The 12 colleges affiliated to Delhi University but fully funded by the Delhi government are Acharya Narendra Dev College, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Bhagini Nivedita College, DeenDayal Upadhyaya College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya Women’s College, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education & Sports Sciences, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Maharaja Agrasen College (DU), Maharshi Valmiki College of Education, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.

Advocate Jivesh Tiwari, appearing for DUSU, said the fund is collected from students and is to be used for student welfare, and urged the high court to stay the government’s order.

Reacting to the order, DUSU president Akshit Dahiya said, “We had challenged the anti-student directive of the Delhi government on the grounds that the Students Society Fund (SSF) corpus, which is entirely made up of fees charged from students, is meant for funding student societies at colleges, and the unspent amount is to be utilised only for student welfare.”

The matter would be now heard on November 2.