The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : G.O. on salary payment mode for minority institution staff stayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

G.O. on salary payment mode for minority institution staff stayed

Special Correspondent

No contract between Government and the staff: petitioner

CHENNAI : A Government Order, which proposes to introduce salary payment to staff members of minority institutions through electronic clearing system (ECS), instead of routing it through the managements, has been stayed by the Madras High Court.

Justice P.D. Dinakaran granted the stay on a writ petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Catholic Educational Association, an umbrella organisation for over 2,400 Catholic institutions in the State.

The impugned order was issued by the Finance Department on August 31, 2005, while the Special Commissioner of Treasuries later directed treasury officers to implement the ECS in full swing for the salary payments from September onwards.

Contending that the direct payment of salary to the staff of minority schools by the Government will obliterate the difference between Government and minority schools, the petitioner said, "the management is under a contract with the employees of minority aided schools under Rule 15 of the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Rules 1977. There is no contract between the government and employees. Further, the management gives an undertaking to the Government and various agencies to recover loan instalments, if any, while disbursing salary to the staff."

Opposing salary disbursement "without any control," the petitioner said, "the new system of ECS is an encroachment into the rights of minority educational agencies, that too without amending the rules and contravening the existing legal and statutory mode of payment." Pointing out that many of the staff members in the member-schools were Christian priests, the petitioner said they were barred from operating a personal bank account. "In the new ECS, the earnings are sought to be credited in their personal accounts directly, which is in contradiction to their religious life."

Stating that the schools could not be compelled to open separate bank accounts for each of its employees for direct salary payment bypassing the management, the petitioner sought to quash the impugned GO and the consequential orders.

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