Kerala HC stays State govt. order on salary deferment

‘Financial difficulty not a valid reason’

29/04/2020, K.C. GOPAKUMAR ,KOCHI

Deferment of payment of salary amounts to denial of right to property, the HC said.

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday stayed for two months the operationalisation of the State government order to defer the payment of the salary of government employees and the staff of State government-owned undertakings.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas passed the interim order on a slew of petitions filed by various unions challenging the order to defer payment of six days’ salary every month from April to August. The order is not applicable to employees who draw a gross salary below ₹20,000.

The court observed that prima facie the law authorising the government to issue such an order was found wanting. There was ambiguity in the order on the manner in which the amount deducted was proposed to be set apart or was to be utilised. The order only referred to the financial difficulties faced by the government due to the COVID-19 situation.

Financial difficulty

Financial difficulty was not a ground for the government to defer payment of salary of its employees. Prima facie, deferment of payment of salary, for whatever purposes, amounted to denial of the right to property, the court added.

Counsel for the unions contended that Article 300A of the Constitution (right to property) would include within its ambit ‘salary’ as well.

The article mandates that no person shall be deprived of his/her property save by the authority of the law. They further argued that no law empowered the government to defer the salary payment of the employees. Besides, the payment could not be deferred without their consent.

Rejecting a contention of the government, the court pointed out that the Disaster Management Act or the Epidemic Diseases Act did not specifically confer any power on the government to defer salary payments during the times of any disaster.