Supreme Court Dismisses IMA's Plea

New Delhi: Refusing to consider the contempt petition moved by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) seeking to direct the Delhi Government to pay the pending salaries of all the doctors immediately, the Supreme Court recently dismissed the plea and suggested it to approach Delhi High Court as the high court is already monitoring the issue.

The organization approached the apex court against the Delhi Chief Secretary for alleged non-payment of salaries to doctors since the month of June.

The senior advocate Manindar Singh appearing before the bench on behalf of the petitioner stated that at a time like this when the healthcare workers are extending their services day and night in order to contain the pandemic and are being hailed as the "frontline warriors" against COVID-19, the authorities should at least ensure that they do not face additional difficulties due to non-clearance of salaries.

PTI reports that the petitioner alleged that the doctors despite their dedication in containing the pandemic, have not been given their monthly salary on regular basis.

The counsel for the petitioner further stated that the salaries of the Delhi based doctors have been given to them for April and May only after the high court directed the government to immediately release salaries.

However, no salary has been paid to the doctors yet from June to October. Singh contended that doctors should be paid their salary on time to which the bench said that there is no doubt that salary has to be paid and the Union of India has already passed an order in this regard.

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Hearing the case, Justice Ashok Bhushan agreed with the petitioner that the doctors have contributed exceptionally during the pandemic and they have the right to be paid on time. However, the apex court refused to intervene in the matter and rather granted IMA the liberty to move to Delhi High court for immediate redressal as there one such case is already pending.

This came after the apex court observed that the High Court has already passed an order on July 29 regarding the same and is currently monitoring the case.

On July 29, the Delhi High Court had told the AAP government to release to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) the funds it requires to pay the stipends of the resident doctors in the six hospitals run by the civic body. The high court had asked the Delhi government to release within 15 days an amount of Rs 8 crore, as was done by it earlier, to NDMC without waiting for the completion of paperwork so that the resident doctors can be paid, reports PTI.

It had observed that the resident doctors do not get a regular salary and instead they are only given stipends or emoluments which ought not to be denied to them. It had made it clear that the amount being released was meant solely for the purpose of paying the stipends or emoluments of the resident doctors in the six hospitals of NDMC.

It had also directed the corporation to complete all the paperwork in relation to the Rs 8 crore that would be released by the Delhi government and warned that failure to complete the formalities would lead to action against the officials concerned. The high court order had come while hearing a PIL initiated by it 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.

The news reports have also stated that recently the doctors of North MCD-run Hindu Rao hospital had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over non-payment of their salaries for the months of March, April, and May. In its status report, filed in response to the plea, the corporation stated that salaries up to May of all resident doctors in hospitals run by the civic body have been paid. The corporation also added in its report that the salary up to April of all of its regular doctors have also been paid.