Despite the Chief Justice setting their salaries, the legal researchers for a number of High Court judges claimed that the government had failed to provide funding to cover the arrears.
In Danish Iqbal v. GNCTD, the Delhi High Court demanded an explanation from the Delhi government on Monday as to why it had not paid the High Court judges’ legal researchers’ back pay.
Justice Prathiba M. Singh was debating a petition submitted by a group of legal scholars representing different High Court judges. They demanded that the High Court Chief Justice’s rulings from August 24, 2018 and September 3, 2019 be put into effect.
Their initial compensation, set by the Chief Justice at $25,000, was increased to $35,000 by an order issued on September 18, 2017. On August 24, 2018, new regulations were established, increasing the salary to $50,000. Then, on September 3, 2019, the salary was raised to $65,000.
The petitioners argued that they have yet to receive the arrears despite working as legal researchers during the pertinent time. Even after filing a request for information under the Right to Information Act (RTI), they discovered that the Delhi government had not yet authorised the release of funds for the payment of arrears.
In order to get their back pay that was set by the Chief Justice of the High Court, they filed a writ petition.
After giving the matter some thought, Justice Singh informed the Delhi government. The Bench commanded that the government’s attorney “let the matter take instructions and place on record the reasons as to why sanction has not been issued in respect to the arrears liable to be paid to Law Researchers who were discharging their duties at the relevant point in time.”
The administration was also instructed to submit an affidavit or a status update on the matter by May 15. On May 22, the subject will be heard again.
The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Nidhesh Gupta and Advocate Kaustubh Shakkarwar.
The GNCTD was represented by attorneys Avnish Ahlawat, Nitesh Kumar Singh, Lavanya Kaushik, and Aliza Alam.
SUBMITTED BY NEHA A. PARDESHI/4TH Year BLS LLB/TRCL
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