Salary rights for employees from disability onset: HC
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that the State is obliged to provide salary to employees suffering disabilities while in service from the date of acquiring the disability. The ruling came as Justice Aman Chaudhary of the high court disposed of a petition filed by a government clerk seeking salary dues from the onset of his disability in September 2012 rather than the date of certification in June 2017.
Appearing before Justice Chaudhary’s Bench, advocate Dhiraj Chawla contended that the petitioner’s rights under Section 47 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights, and Full Participation) Act, 1995, were violated when his salary was withheld despite acquiring a disability in service.
Chawla told the Bench during the course of hearing that the petitioner, employed as a clerk since 2011, was diagnosed with a severe “hypoxic-ischemic” injury in September 2012, rendering him unable to perform his duties. Initially granted medical leave until March 2013, his absence from April 2013 was treated as leave without pay. A charge-sheet issued in December 2015 for prolonged absence was eventually dropped in November 2017 after the inquiry confirmed his disability. Subsequently, he was certified as 80 per cent disabled by the Civil Surgeon.
In its detailed order, the court relied on precedents, including the ruling in the case of “Joginder Kaur versus the State of Punjab” and “Kulbir Jakhar versus the State of Haryana”, which upheld the principles enshrined in Section 47 of the 1995 Act and its successor, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
Citing Joginder Kaur’s case where salary dues were awarded to the widow of a disabled employee from the onset of her husband’s brain tumour and consequent mental illness, the court reiterated, “It is the liability of the State to pay the salary to an employee who has become disabled while in service, and his services cannot be dispensed with.”
The court also referred to the other case in which salary and allowances were granted to an employee with 75 per cent physical impairment. The Bench noted that employees acquiring disabilities while in service were entitled to full remuneration, with their services protected.
“The State counsel despite best efforts has been unable to controvert regards the factual position and draw out any distinctive aspects in the aforementioned judgment or cite any contrary law,” Justice Chaudhary asserted.
Before parting with the judgment, the Bench held that the petitioner was entitled to his salary from September 21, 2012, when his disability began, in line with the principles established in Joginder Kaur’s case.
