Release doctors’ salaries: Delhi HC to civic bodies
A bench comprising justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said that the salaries should be released within two weeks while hearing an application moved by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeking directions to the two civic bodies to clear the arrears of salaries of the doctors and health workers.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to release the salaries of the doctors of the nine hospitals they run for the month of October.
A bench comprising justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said that the salaries should be released within two weeks while hearing an application moved by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeking directions to the two civic bodies to clear the arrears of salaries of the doctors and health workers.
In its impleadment application, IMA had sought that doctors of three hospitals—Swami Dayanand Hospital, Chandiwala Maternity Home and Shahdara Polyclinic—managed by EDMC also be included in the list of hospitals being considered for relief by the high court.
The application was filed as part of a petition which the court had initiated on the non-payment of salaries to the doctors of the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital. The doctors had threatened to resign as they have not been paid salaries since March this year.
Subsequently, many more petitions related to non-payment of salaries by the three municipal corporations of Delhi—North, East and South—to their employees and pensioners were filed.
The petitioners in those pleas include doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, safai karamcharis, teachers, Class-IV employees and retired staff such as teachers and engineers.
On Wednesday, senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the IMA, told the court that the doctors have not been given salaries for the last two months.
Appearing for the civic bodies, their counsels told the court that the funds have to be released by the Delhi government for salaries to be disbursed by the municipal corporations.
Advocate Satyakam, additional standing counsel of the Delhi government, however, opposed this submission. He said that the hospitals are managed by the corporations and the government has already released its share.
Following this, the court observed that the salaries to the doctors should be released despite administrative differences between the civic bodies and the Delhi government.
“The doctors should not be deprived of their salaries,” the court said.
“In the meantime, NrDMC and EDMC shall release the arrears of salaries of doctors employed with the nine hospitals being run and managed by the said civic authorities... for the month of October, 2020 within two weeks,” the court bench said in its order.
The matter will be now heard on January 15, 2021.