NE LEGAL BUREAU
JAIPUR, OCT 26
Taking up the issue of salary cuts of government employees, the Rajasthan High Court has sought a reply from the state government over the matter by November 5. The court also ordered the government to deposit the deducted or to be deducted amount from the employees’ salaries in a separate account.
The order, issued by Judge Dinesh Mehta, was given on a petition filed by All Rajasthan State Government Employees’ Joint Federation stating that the state government had ordered to deduct salaries of government employees, including members of the federation.
Four cadres of the federation had filed four different applications with the court against the state government’s decision to pay cuts. The court will hear the five other petitions on November 3.
The government was not under the authority to deduct salaries of employees as there was no such provision in the rules of service or in the Pandemic Diseases Act-1897 that empowered it to take such steps.
The high court on Friday withdrew the order banning pay cuts and a day before, it had stayed the state government’s decision to cut the one-day salary of government teachers, in a civil writ petition filed by an individual.
Earlier last month, the employees’ federation had staged a protest in five stages against the state government’s decision to deduct salaries of the employees after the Cabinet had earlier decided to deduct two day’s salary of officers belonging to all-India and state services and a day’s pay of other employees from that month. The government had stated mobilisation of resources for the COVID-19 relief fund as the reason for the pay cuts.
