HC refuses to grant interim stay on Ordinance for Salary deferment

On Tuesday, the High Court of Kerala refused to grant interim stay on an ordinance brought by the State Govt to defer the salaries of Govt employees for 6 months in view of the coronavirus crisis.

A single-judge bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Kerala Disaster & Public Health Emergency (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2020, alleging it was violative of the Indian Constitution.

"The entries under the lists given in Schedule 7 of the Constitution have to be literally and widely interpreted," the bench observed & deferred the matter till the second week of June.

The HC said that when the Govt says that they have legislative competence under the aforementioned entries, the Court can't interfere with the ordinance at such a nascent stage.

The Court said that "The purpose behind the ordinance was to only defer an amount payable to a certain specified class of employees belonging to certain specified institutions. The Ordinance itself provided that the Government will notify a mechanism for paying back the deferred amount & it does not partake in taking away the rights of employees".

The Court also refused to stay the subsequent notifications issued by the Govt for deferment of payment to Govt teachers & denied the request for exempting the health workers from this ordinance while holding that the ordinance uniformly applies to all Govt employees & that there is no classification entailed therein & hence, any interference is uncalled for.

The plea said that "With this ordinance, the government can defer 25% salary of the employees without their consent. So, this ordinance is unconstitutional. We seek to stay the procedure to defer the salary of employees at the base of the ordinance".

The ordinance was brought after Kerala HC stayed for 2 months, an order of the state Govt. which deferred 6 days' salary of all State Govt employees for a period of 6 months in view of the financial burden caused by the coronavirus crisis.

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