Delhi LG directs govt to implement judicial orders for allowance payments to ad hoc welfare officers

The LG said the Social Welfare department took no action whatsoever in view of the CATs order of April 20, 2015 and kept it pending for several years.Such avoidable and whimsical delays on the part of the department left the petitioners with no other option but to approach the judiciary with multiple contempt petitions and miscellaneous applications, in turn causing squandering public funds on unnecessary litigation, he noted.This instance of careless and unperceptive inaction on part of the department, warrants stringent action at appropriate level, he remarked.

Lt Governor V K Saxena has directed the Delhi government to implement the judicial orders for payment of house rent and travel allowances to contractual welfare officers like their regular counterparts in the Social Welfare department get, Raj Niwas officials said on Friday.

The LG expressed ''displeasure'' that there has been ''recurrence of delays'' in handling such administrative matters by the department and in the instant case, his explicit order for implementation of the judicial orders took 8 months to be processed, they said.

The LG has also directed the Social Welfare department to identify and fix responsibility of the officers responsible for causing ''undue delay'' in the matter, within 15 days, officials said.

Noting that orders had been passed in favour of the contractual officers for extension of equal benefits, by Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court, Saxena expressed ''anguish'' that the department has exhibited such a ''lackadaisical and dilly dallying attitude'' in administrative matters, they said.

The contractual welfare officers were fighting legal battle since 2014 and CAT, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court had ruled in their favour, they said.

The CAT had passed two orders in 2015 and the appeals of the Social Welfare and Women and Child Development departments were dismissed by the High Court in 2017, they said.

The challenge to the High Court orders were dismissed by the Supreme Court which also rejected a review petition of the department on March 21, 2023, they said.

Meanwhile, Delhi government sources said services-related matters have been with the LG since 2015. So, he is himself responsible for this delay or his predecessors are, they claimed. The LG said the Social Welfare department took no action whatsoever in view of the CAT’s order of April 20, 2015 and kept it pending for several years.

''Such avoidable and whimsical delays on the part of the department left the petitioners with no other option but to approach the judiciary with multiple contempt petitions and miscellaneous applications, in turn causing squandering public funds on unnecessary litigation,'' he noted.

This instance of careless and unperceptive inaction on part of the department, warrants stringent action at appropriate level, he remarked.