Sanjha Morcha

Don’t make soldiers unhappy during war: SC on non-payment of salaries to doctors

Don’t make soldiers unhappy during war: SC on non-payment of salaries to doctors

The Bench said courts should not be involved in issues like non-payment of salary to health workers and government should sort it out. Tribune file photo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 12

Taking serious note of non-payment of salaries and lack of proper accommodation for doctors and medical workers amid COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to address their concerns at the earliest.

“In a war, you do not make soldiers unhappy. Travel an extra mile and channel some extra money to address their grievances. The country cannot afford to have dissatisfied soldiers in this war against Corona,” a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre.

While hearing a petition by Doctor Arushi Jain, the Bench said courts should not be involved in issues like non-payment of salary to health workers and government should sort it out.

Jain alleged that frontline healthcare workers were not being paid salaries or their salaries had been reduced or delayed. She also questioned the Centre’s new SOP making their 14-day quarantine non-mandatory.

“We saw report that doctors went on strike. In Delhi, some doctors have not been paid for past three months. These are concerns that should have been taken care off. It should not require court intervention,” the Bench said, adding, the government needed to do more to address their concerns.

The Bench posted the matter for hearing next week after Mehta said if better suggestions came, they could be accommodated and the issues could be sorted out.

The top court had earlier said doctors and medical staff were the “first line of defence of the country” in the battle against COVID19 and directed the Centre to ensure appropriate PPEs were made available to them.

The Centre had told the court that a “large number” of make-shift hospitals will have to be built in the near future to accommodate the constant rise in the number of newly infected people.