Dal Chand Aged vs East Delhi Municipal Corporation And Ors

K.N. Shrivastava, Member (A)

The applicant has prayed for the following reliefs:-

"(a) Quash and set aside the "Suspension" being illegal and without reasonable cause is unsustainable in the eye of law and with all consequential benefits.

(b) Direct the Respondents, to release the salary for the month of March, April, May & June 2018 in favour of the Applicant forthwith with interest @ 18% p.a. on the delayed payment of salary from the date it fell due till payment is made, to secure the ends of justice.

(c) Direct the Respondents to re-instate the applicant in service with all consequential relief(s) and also counting the intervening period as on duty with all the benefits."

The applicant has challenged Annexure A1 Office Order dated 10.07.2018 in this OA, by virtue of which, he has been placed under suspension. This order would indicate that the applicant, who is a Primary Teacher in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), Primary School Sabhapur Gujran-II, has refused to register himself in Aadhar based Bio-Matric Attendance System and has also declined to mark his attendance in Aadhar based Bio-matric Attendance machine installed in school premises. No Charge - Memo has been issued to him as yet. Even the statutory 90 days period for issuance of charge - Memo from the date of suspension has not yet elapsed.

Heard learned counsel for the applicant. He submitted that the legal validity of „Aadhar‟ is under challenge before the Hon‟ble Apex Court and till that matter is decided, the respondents would have no authority to force the applicant to register in the Aadhar based Bio-Mastric Attendance System and hence the Annexure A1 order is illegal.

We have considered the arguments of learned counsel of the applicant and have also perused the pleadings.

We are of the view that issues relating to Aadhar cannot be adjudicated by this Tribunal in terms of the mandate of Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. While one can understand that the applicant may refuse to apply for and obtain an Aadhar for himself but he certainly cannot refuse to make his attendance in the Bio-Matric machine. Moreover, no charge memo has been issued to him as yet. In this view of the matter, we dismiss this OA at the admission stage itself with liberty to the applicant to approach this Tribunal or any other legal forum at an appropriate time.