Undeterred by the Kerala High Court staying its move to defer one month’s salary of the employees, the CPI(M) led Kerala Government has chosen the Ordinance route to subvert the court ruling.
In his daily media briefing, Chief Minister Piarayi Vijayan said that the Kerala Government would soon issue an Ordinance which would empower the Government to defer/seize one month’s salary of the employees. “The State is undergoing through a phase of unprecedented financial crisis because of Covid-19 pandemic. There has been a big fall in the State’s revenue and we want to tide over this crisis,” said Vijayan.
He said the contention of the High Court was that the Government’s move to defer the salary is bereft of any legal power. “We are promulgating the ordinance to empower the Government order with legality so that we could go ahead with the move to salary deferment. The decision to promulgate the ordinance was taken in the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday,” said the Chief Minister.
The Kerala High Court while hearing a petition filed by the opposition parties and trade unions affiliated to them challenging the Government’s move to defer the salary had stayed the move and ruled that it was not possible to accept the Government's submission that it had the power to defer the disbursement of salary by a few months. “Payment of salary is certainly not a matter of bounty. It is a right vested in every individual to receive the salary. Article 300A of the Constitution which confers a right to property will include within its purview “salary” also a property, at least prima facie,” the judge had said on Tuesday while staying the Government Order and adjourning the petition for further hearing to May 20.
What makes the issue interesting is that the CPI(M) while justifying the Government’s right to defer the salary of Kerala Government employees is on the other side of the fence in Tamil Nadu where it is strongly opposing the Edappady Palaniswami Government’s decision to freeze the Dearness Allowance and put on hold the leave encashment facility.
