You’re incompetent to the core: Delhi HC slams MCD over delayed employee dues

During the hearing on Thursday, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora orally observed: “Your (MCD) financial condition is precarious. What development activity are you doing today in the city? Are you existing for only paying salaries, not for doing any genuine development work in the city?”

The bench, which had earlier warned the civic authority of its dissolution if it did not make itself financially viable, observed on Thursday that it cannot leave citizens to continue to live in this “miserable” condition. “Only thing we can do is we can start hearing this matter on a daily basis… and we are telling you we will get the MCD superseded. There is no other way. You will have to be shown the door. You are incompetent to the core. There is no other expression for this. You want a judicial finding, you will get it. These matters have been pending for six to seven years, and you have not been able to set your house in order till now,” said the bench orally.

The MCD counsel informed the court that “till now”, around 48,000 employees out of 1,40,000 “eligible employees” have been paid the arrears. They said that arrears have not been paid to around 50,000 employees, and a decision has been taken to set aside a minimum of Rs 15 crore per month for the purpose. The counsel further argued that the issue of payment of aid from the Delhi government was pending before the High Court, to which, the Delhi government counsel claimed that there were “no pending dues”.

On this, the bench orally remarked that “in this inter se fight, the citizens are getting no relief”, and expressed its displeasure at the authority’s inability to pay the outstanding arrears, despite being given opportunities to make the payment.

When the MCD counsel stated that they shall communicate about Thursday’s hearing to the authority, the bench said: “We are sure you have communicated it to them by now, this is not the first hearing. But we can’t carry on with this state of affairs. We will have to pass a judicial order and take it to its logical conclusion. I think we have said enough. Probably there is some inherent limitation that you (MCD) are not able to reform yourself. Therefore, we think this whole system will require an entire relook. It will have to be resolved somehow.”