The Delhi High Court recently sought a reply from the Delhi government on why it had not cleared the arrears of legal researchers of High Court justices.
Justice Prathiba M Singh was hearing a petition filed by a group of law researchers from several High Court justices. They demanded that the orders passed by the Chief Justice of the High Court on August 24, 2018 and September 3, 2019 be implemented.
The Chief Justice first fixed their remuneration at ₹25,000, which was increased to 35,000 by an order issued on September 18, 2017. Further orders were passed on August 24, 2018, increasing the payment to ₹50,000, and on September 3, 2019, increasing it to ₹65,000.
The petitioners argued that despite working as legal researchers during the relevant time period, they haven’t received the arrears yet. They even filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI), only to discover that the Delhi government had not issued financial sanction for paying the arrears.
As a result, they filed a writ suit seeking the release of their remuneration arrears as fixed by the Chief Justice of the High Court.
After deliberating on the matter, Justice Singh issued a notice to the Delhi government.
“Let the government counsel take instructions in the matter and place on record the reasons why sanction has not been issued in respect of the arrears liable to be paid to Law Researchers who were discharging their duties at the relevant point of time,” the Bench ruled.
The further order was also issued to the government to file an affidavit or status report on the subject by May 15.
The case will be heard again on May 22, 2023.
