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Judgment
The 1st petitioner - which is stated to be a registered Association, representing the employees of the Guruvayur Devaswom and an Assistant
Manager of Guruvayur Devaswom as the 2nd petitioner, has approached this Court impugning Ext.P4 proceedings, dated 27/04/2020, issued by the
Administrator of the said Devaswom, as per which, certain portion of salary payable to the employees have been ordered to be retained, to be repaid
later, on account of COVID-19 pandemic disruption.
The petitioners say that Ext.P4 proceedings have been issued by the Administrator of Guruvayur Devaswom based on certain Government Orders
and they assert that Government has no power to have instructed the Devaswom to do so, since they have no direct or even supervisory control in
such matters.
The petitioners, therefore, pray that Ext.P4 be set aside and the Administrator of Guruvayur Devaswom be directed to refund the amounts retained
from the employees forthwith.
Even though there are various assertions, allegations and averments in this writ petition, I do not deem it necessary to enter into it in detail, since
forensic propriety of the Government Order with respect to Government servants have already been considered by this Court in certain other writ
petitions.
The fact that the concept of “deferment of salary†had been thought of and implemented by the Government on account of COVID-19
pandemic restrictions alone is virtually uncontested. Of course, the adscititious issue in this case is whether Government could have issued any order
directing such deferment of salary as far as the employees of Guruvayur Devaswom Board is concerned; but as I have said above, these issues have
now become rather less relevant because Government has now issued a further order dated 25/10/2020, whereby, repayment of the retained amounts
to various employees has been ordered in the following manner:
“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 7 of the Kerala Disaster and Public Health Emergency (Special Provisions)
Ordinance, 2020 (47 of 2020), the Government of Kerala hereby specify the manner in which the pay and allowances deferred as per notification
issued under G.O(P)No.53/2020/Fin. Dated 30th April, 2020 and published as S.R.O.No.296/2020 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No.1115 dated
30th April, 2020 will be given back to such employees and teachers specified therein:
(1) Pay and allowances deferred from the salary of April 2020 to August 2020 would be merged in the Provident Fund on 1st April, 2021. Amount
thus merged will only be permitted to withdraw after 1st June, 2021. Interest applicable to Provident Fund would also be applicable to such amount so
remitted from the date of remittance.
(2) In the case of employees and teachers who do not have Provident Fund (including pensioners), deferred portion of pay and allowances would be
repaid in monthly instalments in cash from 1st June, 2021. Each monthly instalment would be equivalent to the pay and allowances deferred during
each month from April 2020 to August 2020.â€
The learned counsel for the petitioners, Shri.P.Mohandas, submitted that his clients will be satisfied if this Court ensures that the deferred portion of
pay and allowances to his clients are at least paid in cash from 1st of June, 2021, since none of them have Provident Fund; and therefore, that if
Guruvayur Devaswom and Government agree that this will be done, they do not require any further directions other than that.
I, therefore, asked Shri.Sunil Kumar Kuriakose - learned Government Pleader, as to how the deferred portion of pay and allowances, as far as the
employees of Guruvayur Devaswom Board, will be repaid, he submitted that if the amounts retained from the employees have already been deposited
by the Devaswom to Government Treasury Account, then same will be repaid to the Devaswom, so as to be, in turn, paid in cash to the employees
starting from 1st of June, 2021. He prayed that, therefore, this writ petition be ordered on such terms.
Shri.Vipin Das, learned Standing Counsel for Guruvayur Devaswom, submitted that the amounts retained from the employees under the
Government Order have been remitted to the Special Treasury Savings Bank Account, as is evident from Ext.P7 and therefore, that his client
understands that Government will pay back this money to them, which can then be disbursed to individual employees in cash from 1st of June, 2021.
He also, therefore, prayed that no further orders be issued in this writ petition, other than to the afore effect.
As I have said above, this writ petition was filed on 12/05/2020, when the concept of deferment of salary had been just introduced. There was a lot
of issues with respect to this policy, leading to various writ petitions; but, as matters now stand, the period of deferment is coming to a close and the
Government has, through their order dated 25/10/2020, agreed to repay these amounts in cash from 1st of June, 2021.
Thus, sole issue that is now relevant is whether the latest Government Order dated 25/10/2020 would apply in the case of employees of Guruvaur
Devaswom Board also. However, since Shri.Sunil Kumar Kuriakose - learned Government Pleader and Sri.Vipin Das - learned Standing Counsel for
Guruvayur Devaswom Board say that this Order will apply in its full force to the employees of the Devaswom Board also, I do not think that any
further directions are required in this case other than making sure that the petitioners get their deferred portion of pay and allowances in monthly
instalments, as ordered in it from 1st of June, 2021.
Resultantly, this writ petition is ordered:
(a) With a direction to the Government to ensure that sufficient amounts, which are necessary to pay the deferred portion of pay and allowances to
the employees of Guruvayoor Devaswom Board in monthly instalments - as ordered in the Government Order dated 25/10/2020 are remitted to the
concerned Authority of the Devaswom within time each month, so as to ensure that it can be disbursed to the employees in cash from 1st of June,
2021 onwards.
(b) On the amounts as afore directed being remitted to the account of the Devaswom Board, the 3rd respondent â€" Administrator will ensure that
each of the employees, from whom amounts had been retained as per the earlier Government Order, is paid in cash in monthly instalments, as ordered
in the Government Order dated 25/10/2020, without fail from 1st of June, 2021, until it is fully disbursed.