Following the ‘impasse’ in resolving the salary issue of the staff of north and east Delhi Municipal Corporations, a plea was moved in the Delhi High Court on Friday seeking directions to both the municipal corporations to disburse the salaries of March and April to the primary teachers and doctors employed by them.

The application by NGO Social Jurist contended that while the teachers have not been paid for these two months, in February they received meagre amounts like Rs 4 and Rs 8 as salary after deduction of tax.

The NGO, in its plea filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal, also said the residential doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital have gone on a pen-down strike since Thursday in protest against non-payment of March and April salaries.

The application, which is likely to be listed for hearing on May 21, was filed in the NGO’s main petition highlighting the non-payment of salaries of teachers employed by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC).

The petitioner in its plea has also stated that it is the violation of their fundamental rights to livelihood as guaranteed under article 21 of the constitution.

The petition has contended that non-payment of the teachers’ salaries, would adversely affect the education of thousands of students studying in the schools run by the two corporations.

It has claimed that this would amount to a violation of the mandate of the Right to Education Act of 2009 as well as the fundamental right to livelihood guaranteed under the Constitution.

The petition also stated that the EDMC and NMC have no jurisdiction to withhold salaries of teachers as well as of Doctors working with them.