Tribunal head's salary: HC seeks Delhi Finance Secy's reply

The Delhi High Court has asked the Finance Secretary of the city government to file a reply to the contempt notice issued to him over non-compliance of its order to "immediately enhance" salary of a retired additional district judge who is heading two appellate tribunals.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva refused to accept the reply filed by the education department of Delhi government, saying the contempt notice was issued to the Finance Secretary.
The court directed that the reply be filed before the next date of hearing on May 13.
It passed the order after advocate Sanjeev Ralli, appearing for retired ADJ V K Maheshwari, who is heading the Delhi Schools Tribunal (DST) and State Transport Appellate Tribunal (STAT), contended that the response has come from the education department and not the finance secretary.

Ralli also argued there was not complete compliance of the court's order, as claimed by the government, as the salary and allowances for the month of March had not been paid.
On April 15, the Delhi government's education department had in its reply told the court that it has complied with its directions to enhance Maheshwari's pay. It had also claimed to have fixed the terms and conditions of his appointment.

The court, on that date, had not examined the reply as it was not on its record and had listed the matter for hearing on April 22.
According to the reply filed on affidavit, Delhi government had claimed to have paid Rs 6.06 lakh to Maheshwari as arrears of his salary and other allowances from May 2014 to February 2015.

The government had also said it had framed the terms and conditions regarding salary and allowances applicable to re-employed officers of Delhi Higher Judicial Service appointed as presiding officer in Delhi School Tribunal.
Disputing the claims, Ralli argued that the terms framed by the education department refer to re-employment which was not applicable to Maheshwari's case.