THE Delhi High Court on Friday, in suo motu proceedings, directed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to disburse salaries of resident doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital which have been pending since March 2020. The decision followed various media reports about non-payment of salary to Resident Doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital in Delhi. Due to non-payment of salary for the last three months, the resident doctors intend to either resign en masse or go on strike.
Advocate Akhil Mittal, on behalf of the NDMC, Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital, told the High Court that salaries had not been paid to the resident doctors i.e. Junior Residents, Senior Residents and PG Doctors since March, 2020 due to financial constraints. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain on behalf of the Delhi Government told the court that it had already disbursed the legally payable amount to NDMC in the month of May 2020. Nonetheless, according to the ASG, Delhi Government is ready to disburse an additional amount for payment of salaries, by June 18, to all six hospitals-Hindu Rao Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, Rajendra Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis Hospital, Maharishi Valmiki in Infections Diseases Hospital, Mrs. Girdhar Lal Maternity Hospital and Balak Ram Hospital.
Upon considering the submissions made by all the parties, a division bench of Chief Justice Ranjendra Menon and Justice Prateek Jalan directed that outstanding payment of March and April should be cleared for all the six hospitals. The Junior Residents, Senior Residents and PG doctors must receive their March salaries in their bank accounts by 5 p.m. on June 19, 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 June 24, 2020.
