The Delhi High Court today dismissed an appeal against an order refusing to interfere with the deduction of a day’s salary of a Delhi University Professor towards contribution to the PM CARES Fund remarking that only a stone-hearted person would prefer such a challenge.
The order was passed by a Divison Bench of Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula.
The Appellant was represented by Advocates Shikhar Khare, Srinivasan Ramaswamy. Advocate Mohinder J.S. Rupal appeared for Delhi University.
Case Background
Delhi University Professor (Appellant) had preferred a writ petition against the deduction of a day’s salary i.e. Rs 7,500 towards the PM CARES Fund on the ground that the University did not give adequate notice of the deduction to their employees
The Petition was dismissed by a single Judge Bench and the Professor preferred an appeal before the Division Bench.The Court observed that the Chairman, UGC, as well as Registrar of the University, had made appeals in the month of March 2020 to make voluntary contributions to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The last date to raise objections was also set at April 2, 2020, it was noted.
Keeping in view the severity and the spread of the pandemic, the Court further opined that the deduction of one day’s salary of the Appellant could not be said to be “contrary to public interest or harsh or inequitable”.
“This Court is constrained to ask itself a question that wouldn’t a ‘stone hearted person’ only challenge the decision to deduct one day’s salary for a pandemic?“
The Court observed that a writ petition was not a statutory proceeding and a Court was not bound to entertain and allow the same if the cause espoused was not contrary to the public interest and/or inequitable. The appeal was accordingly dismissed with liberty to the appellant to file a suit for recovery.
Read the order here: