Delhi High Court directs state govt to release funds for salaries in funded colleges

Source:-https://www.indialegallive.com

New Delhi (ILNS): The Delhi High Court has directed the Kejriwal government to take appropriate steps to release money to pay salaries for the month of October, November and December the teachers and staff of the colleges funded by it.

The court gave this direction after the government said that it has allocated funds for three colleges to pay salaries to teachers and staff, while money has already been given to one college.

Justices Hima Kohli and S. Prasad’s bench had last week ordered the government to provide funds to four colleges of Delhi University funded by it before November 9 to pay salaries and allowances to teachers and staff.

The bench said that Diwali, the biggest festival, is coming up and the government has denied teachers and employees salaries. Taking a dig at the government, the bench said: “We don’t want to hear anything, you should provide funds to the colleges before November 9 so that teachers and staff are paid before Diwali.”

On November 11, the bench was told by the government that money had been given to Bhagni Nivedita College, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and Aditi Mahavidyal, while Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar College had already been given the money.

However, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar College told the bench that from the money given by the government, only salary could be given till the month of July. The college said that a letter has also been written to the government in this regard. On this, the court has asked the government to consider the college letter within two days and decide.

The bench gave this order on behalf of the teachers of these colleges on a petition filed by advocate Ashok Aggarwal. It was said in the petition that the teachers and staff of DU colleges funded by the Delhi government are not being given salary and allowance since May. But the bench had limited it to only six colleges in this case as the petitioners were teachers of these colleges. However, later the teachers of the two colleges were paid. Therefore, the High Court has just directed the government to release money to pay salaries to teachers and staff of only 4 colleges.

Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, on behalf of the petitioner, raised the issue of non-payment of salary to about 30 ad hoc teachers of Aditi College for several months. On this, the government has said that the college has appointed these ad hoc teachers without the approval of the government.