The Delhi High Court after taking suo moto cognizance of media reports, directed, the North DMC to disburse salaries of resident doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital which had been pending since March 2020.
The following schedule for the payment of salaries was set out by Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan:
‘so far as payment of outstanding salary for the month of March, 2020 is concerned, the same shall be given to the Junior Residents, Senior Residents and PG doctors in their bank accounts by 5 p.m. on 19th June, 2020. So far as the outstanding payment for the month of April, 2020 is concerned, the payment shall be made to all the resident doctors on or before 5 p.m. on 24th June, 2020.’
Media reports about unpaid salaries of doctors
The order had come after the court took suo moto cognizance of multiple media reports that talked about the non-payment of salary to the Resident Doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital situated at Delhi. The resident doctors intended to either resign in masses or go on strike due to non-payment of salary for at last three months.
The court was informed by Mr Akhil Mittal, who appeared for North DMC that salaries had not been paid to the resident doctors i.e. Junior Residents, Senior Residents and PG Doctors due to financial constraints since March, 2020.
ASG Sanjay Jain submitted on the other hand that the Delhi Government had already disbursed the legally payable amount to North Delhi Municipal Corporation in the month of May, 2020. Nonetheless, by 18th June, 2020, they are ready to disburse an additional amount for payment of salary to the resident doctors of all aforesaid six hospitals.
The court after taking these submissions into consideration, observed that the outstanding amount paid by the Delhi Government to the North DMC shall be utilised for the payment of outstanding remuneration for the month of April, 2020 to the abovementioned categories of doctors. The amount shall not be retained by the North DMC unnecessarily.
‘The amount to be released by the government which is approximately ?8.00 crores, will be adjusted/set off towards the payments required to be made by the government in future to the North DMC. The adjustment of the accounts can always be done at later stage but the salary is required to be paid on priority to the resident doctors‘, court directed further.
Read Order
