'While The World Celebrates Onam, They Stay Hungry': Kerala High Court Condemns Delay In Disbursing Pending Salaries To KSRTC Employees

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday voiced its disappointment at the delay in disbursing the pending salary of the KSRTC employees and thereby asked the authorities to utilise the assets of the KSRTC to pay the salaries of the employees.  

Justice Devan Ramachandran expressed his discontent at the delay even after repeated orders have been passed by the Court.

"When the world is celebrating Onam, these people will be hungry," remarked the Court.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had previously sought ten more days to disburse salaries yet to be paid to its employees. This came after the Court directed KSRTC to disburse salaries to its employees for the months of June and July before August 10. The Court allowed this Interlocutory Application. 

The Counsel appearing for the Corporation Advocate Deepu Thankan submitted before the Court that although the Corporation managed to disburse the salary for the month of June, there has been a delay in disbursing the salary for the month of July due to a lack of funds. 

The Court orally remarked that "It is not a matter of delay; it is a matter of complete failure if the government refuses to provide funds."

The Government submitted before the Court that a high-level meeting was being convened to decide upon the matter, and to which the Court remarked that if the Government was sincere about paying the money, they should have had the meeting earlier. The Court had directed the counsel to inform the Court of the decisions taken in the meeting. 

Justice Ramachandran opined that the assets of KSRTC should be utilised for the disbursing of the salaries of the employees. Further, he said that the single duty matter has not yet been decided because the salaries have yet been paid. How can the employees be asked to work for 12 hours when they are not being paid their salaries, enquires the Court. 

 The matter has been adjourned to the 24th of this month for further consideration. 

Case Title: R. Baji & Ors. v. KSRTC & Ors.