With schools completely shut, these teachers, who are paid per day of work, have found themselves without a source of income.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the North MCD for not paying salaries to around 9,000 teachers in their schools since March and observed that it cannot “keep gunning the Delhi government alone” and it will “also have to take responsibility”.
“You cannot blame the Delhi government all the time. You (North MCD) are the employer and the Delhi government is only granting aid for implementing the scheme of primary education,” a bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad said.
It expressed strong displeasure over the submission of the North MCD counsel, senior advocate H S Phoolka, that the “salary of all the 9,000 teachers employed by the North MCD was released in February 2020, but salary for the month of March 2020 has been paid only to 5,400 teachers employed by them on Covid-19 duties”.
Phoolka conceded before the court that the salaries of the remaining 3,600 teachers had not been released for the month of March and no salaries had been paid to any of the teachers employed by the North MCD for three months — from April 2020 to June 2020.
To this, the bench said, “It is a very sad state of affairs. Look at their (teachers’) plight. How can you even leave these 3,600 teachers without salaries?” the bench remarked.
Delhi government’s counsel Avnish Ahlawat said the authorities concerned have released the sanctioned sum of over Rs 49 crore each for April, May and June towards grant-in-aid for disbursing salaries to the teachers of the corporation, under the scheme of primary education for the year 2020-21.
The court said that in the event the sum of Rs 49.16 crore is released by the Delhi government in favour of the North MCD, the unpaid salaries of the teachers for the month of March 2020 shall be released forthwith.
The court’s observation came during the hearing of a plea initiated by itself over the disbursement of unpaid salaries of teachers employed in schools run by the North MCD.
The counsel for the North MCD, however, disputed the Delhi government’s claim.
The bench said that for the purpose of clarity the Department of Education and Delhi government’s Urban Development Department shall file separate status reports indicating the amounts that are due and payable for the financial year 2020-2021 towards the salary component of teachers engaged by the North MCD.
It also directed the North MCD to file a status report with a tabulated statement indicating the amount that it is required to disburse in the year 2020-2021 towards its share of the salaries payable to teachers engaged by it, the amounts that have been released till the quarter ending June 2020, and the extent of the unpaid amounts.
“The status report that the North MCD will file shall indicate the amount that has been released to its teachers in terms of our order and the number of teachers, and for which period,” the order said.
It listed the matter for further hearing on July 9.