KOCHI:Coming down heavily on the state’s Salary Challenge, a Kerala High Court Division Bench on Wednesday observed there was an element of ‘compulsion’ in the order mandating declaration for government employees who are unwilling to contribute one month’s wage to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) for flood relief. The government has asked for a statement from those employees who are not willing.
A Division Bench comprising Justice C T Ravikumar and Justice AM Babu made the observation based on the petition filed by Kerala NGO Sangh General Secretary S K Jayakumar, challenging the alleged compulsion.
The petitioner submitted the Travancore Devaswom Board and Malabar Devaswom Board had issued similar orders, which were stayed by the High Court. Subsequently, they were withdrawn by the Boards after realising that recovery of one-month salary from the government servants was legally unsustainable.The petitioner said the Chief Minister only made a request to the government employees whereas when the order was issued, it was compulsory in nature. A donation cannot be treated as a compulsory contribution and it depends on each individual’s financial capacity. The petitioner had approached the Kerala Administrative Tribunal, but it declined to stay the order. Hence, the Sangh approached the High Court. It also sought a directive that the employees may be allowed to give donation to the CMDRF based on their financial capacity.
The Bench asked: “Why the government is insisting for a declaration from employees unwilling to contribute amount?”. To which Advocate General C P Sudhakara Prasad said there was no compulsory deductionm but the government has made only a request.