Employees pay and allowances should not be withheld because of MGEL: Court
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, April 02 2011:
Pay and allowances of government employees should not be withhold because of the Manipur Government Employees List (MGEL), says the Gauhati High Court Imphal Bench, asking the MGEL authority to finalize all cases of employees pending with MGEL with promptitude.
Authority of the Manipur Government Employees List (MGEL) has no right and competency to withhold pay and allowances of regular employees, the Court held saying that the authority is only an executive instruction and not having the status of a statuary rule.
Since the introduction of computerisation of personnel information system (CPIS) or MGEL by the Manipur government, employees of various departments, particularly employees of Education Department, have been facing withholding of their pays and allowances when the authority of the MGEL could not finalise the CPIS.
The court of Justice Asok Potsangbam observed that withholding the pay and allowance just simply on the ground that MGEL in a department has not been finalized is not a right decision.
The purpose of the authority (MGEL) is basically for identification of the sanctioned posts and the number of employees holding the sanctioned posts and this is supposed to be an internal administrative exercise to be conducted by the departments concerned.
In no way, it can be taken to be a legally authorized instrument to interfere with the payment of monthly pay and allowances of the an employee under FR (Finance Rules) 19 to 22 of the Manipur government's Finance Rules and Service Rules (FR and SR) the division bench held.
The non-finalisation of the MGEL has caused suffering to a large number of poor and innocent government employees due to non-payment of their pay and allowances, the court said "This cannot be allowed to continue any further" and the court has instructed MGEL authorities to finalize all cases pending with MGEL within a month's time.
The court made the observation in one of its ruling passed after hearing a writ petition filed by a teacher of a government school through his counsel against withholding of his pay and allowance after May 2009 because of MGEL.
The court also noted that the directorate of school education has taken years to finalize MGEL.
This has deprived the monthly pays and allowances of a large number of teachers and also taken unlimited time for finalization of MGEL and the court directed authorities of the MGEL and government to release pay and allowances of the petitioner (Ksh Jitendra Singh, a Hindi graduate teacher at Khumidhok Khabi Awang Primary School, Imphal) within a period of one month from the date of issue of the certified order of the court.
If the department (Education Department) fails to comply with court's directive within the stipulated time, the withheld pay and allowances of the petitioner will carry an interest of 7% per annum from the date it became due to the petitioner, the court warned.
The court pronounced the judgment today after hearing the writ petition of the teacher conducted on March 31.Advocate A Sachikumar appeared in court for the counsel and government advocate S Napoleon appeared in the court as counsel of the Manipur government, represented by commissioner/secretary (education-s), commissioner (finance), director of education (s) and ZEO, Porompat, Imphal east.
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