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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Bihar government on a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging that non-payment of salaries to government employees had led to the death of people.
The bench of Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Ashok Bhan issued the notice to the Bihar government on the PIL filed by advocate Kapila Hingorani. The State government has been asked to file a response in six weeks.
The Indian Express had run a series of stories on the plight of government employees in Bihar who, in some cases, hadn’t been paid for several years.
The petition quotes a media report highlighting the death of Chandan Bhattacharya, son of an employee with the Bihar State Agro-Industries Development Corporation, ‘‘who sought to immolate himself as his father had not received salary for nine years.’’
The petition states, ‘‘Chandan is quoted as saying that his mother and brother died because they could not get proper medical attention; and that, let alone medicines, they did not even get enough to eat during their illness.’’
The petition also quotes figures to show that 88,572 employees engaged with 49 ailing public undertakings were totally, dependent on the state government for their salaries. ‘‘The situation is equally bad in schools, madrasas and colleges, where nearly 1.5 lakh teaching and non-teaching employees of unaided schools and colleges face a similar fate,’’ the petition states.
The petition, quoting media reports, also says that the ‘‘leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly stated that over 1000 employees had died due to lack of salary for a period ranging from four months to 94 months.’’
Hingorani says, ‘‘The media reports were so touching. I thought it was time something was done.’’ She plans to file a supplementary petition soon. Over a period of two decades, she has taken up various causes in 87 public interest litigations, including one on undertrial prisoners.
