Delhi HC directs North, East MCD to Release October salary of doctors in 2 weeks

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the municipal corporations of North and East Delhi to release within two weeks the arrears of salaries of doctors, employed in the nine hospitals being run and managed by them, for the month of October.

The direction by a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad was issued on an application moved by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

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The court also issued notice to the two corporations and the Delhi government seeking their stand on IMA's plea.

It also allowed another application moved by IMA seeking to be impleaded in a PIL initiated by the court on its own with regard to payment of stipend/emoluments to resident doctors of the six hospitals run and managed by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC).

In its impleadment application, IMA had sought that doctors of three hospitals -- Swami Dayanand Hospital, Chandiwala Maternity Home and Shahdara Poly Clinic -- being managed by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) be also included in the list of hospitals being considered for relief by the high court in the PIL initiated by it.

The high court had initiated the PIL based on news reports that doctors of Kasturba Gandhi Hospital have threatened to resign as they have not been paid salaries since March this year.

Subsequently, many more petitions were filed relating to non-payment of salaries by the three municipal corporations of Delhi -- North, East and South -- to its employees and pensioners of different cadres.

The list of petitioners in those pleas includes doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, safai karamcharis, teachers, class-IV employees and retired staff like teachers and engineers.

The bench headed by Justice Kohli on Wednesday said that since the bench headed by Chief Justice D N Patel was monitoring the issue regarding funding of the corporations and a joint meeting of the civic agencies was convened on the directions passed by that court, all these petitions be listed before the appropriate bench to be taken up with the matter that was being monitored.

All the petitions are listed for hearing before the appropriate bench on January 15, 2021.

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