On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered the Center to ensure that the wages of doctors and health staff on the frontlines of the Covid-19 get released on time.
A bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan ordered the Center to ensure that doctors and health care staff pay their salary by 10 August.
Once the Centre, in response to the request, put the responsibility on state governments, it was directed by the apex court to take action under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The court came after the Centre told the court that four states — Punjab, Maharashtra, Tripura and Karnataka — did not delivered timely payments to COVID-19 frontline health staff and doctors in view of their course. The Center claimed that it gave guidance to all states, but four of them had not yet followed the same course.
The Court also demanded the Center’s response to the petitioner’s argument that the quarantine time for health employees had been viewed as leave. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Center, said that this could not be the case, and assured to look into it.
The Court heard a petition filed by Dr Arushi Jain demanding prompt payment of wages to COVID-19 health care staff and physicians.
