Salary from students’ funds: Delhi HC refuses to lift stay on order

The Delhi high court on Monday refused to lift the stay on the government’s decision asking 12 Delhi University colleges, which are fully funded by it, to pay outstanding

The Delhi high court on Monday refused to lift the stay on the government’s decision asking 12 Delhi University colleges, which are fully funded by it, to pay outstanding salaries of staffers from the students’ fund. The court had on October 23 stayed the government order in this regard.

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Justice Jyoti Singh said that it will decide the application seeking vacation of stay only after hearing all the parties and sought replies from all 12 colleges. The court issued notices to the 12 colleges and Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) on the Delhi government’s application to vacate the stay order.

The court also granted three weeks’ time to the colleges to file their replies to the petition filed by DUSU, which has challenged the October 16 order of Delhi government asking the institutes to pay the salaries of over 1,500 staff — both teaching and non-teaching — from the students’ fund.

Appearing for the Delhi government, its counsel urged the high court to vacate the October 23 while contending that the government is compelled to release the funds despite the fact that the colleges are sitting over a huge amount of money.

However, the court did not pass any order and said that its October 23 order would continue till further directions.

The high court had earlier issued notices to the directorate of higher education, Delhi University and Delhi government and sought their replies on the petition by DUSU.

The 12 colleges, which are affiliated with the Delhi University and are 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.

DUSU, in its plea, has said: “Such arbitrary and illegal usage of the money raised by the students for their academic welfare has forced the petitioner who represents the students of the university as a union, to come to this court for quashing of such illegal, unjust and arbitrary order that is unjust and violative of the rights of the students as a whole.”

Delhi University’s counsel had said the varsity is supporting the students’ petition and added that the student’s fund cannot be used for paying teachers’ salaries and it will amount to cheating the students.

The plea said the directorate of higher education has directed the 12 colleges, which are 100 per cent funded by the Delhi government, to exhaust and utilise the funds gathered by the students with respect to the Students Society Fund (SSF) maintained by the respective colleges for and by the students.

Welcoming the court’s decision, Delhi University Principal Association (DUPA) secretary Manoj Sinha said, “The DUPA does not support paying of salaries from student society funds. This suggestion to do so is both bad in law as well as surreptitious privatisation of higher education.”

“The court has asked Delhi University, the 12 colleges and Delhi government to file their responses and the next hearing will be on December 15. The Delhi government will put forward the multiple financial irregularities before the court,” a government spokesperson said.