KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the state government order directing all its employees to donate their one month’s salary to Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF), the Kerala High Court on Monday orally asked: “how the executive can issue such an order in the form of ‘compulsion’?”.
The court also pointed out that commanded or imposed the collection of the fund may amount to ‘extortion’.
A Division Bench comprising Justice P R Ramachandran Menon and Justice Devan Ramachandran made the observation while considering the petition filed by Travancore Devaswom Board Employees Front General Secretary J Gangadharan Pillai, challenging the TDB decision.
The Board issued an order directing to deduct amounts from salary and festival allowances of all the employees to donate to the fund.
The petitioner’s counsellor K R Sunil submitted compulsory deduction of salary without any prior notice is illegal. Donating fund is a voluntary act, he added.