The Delhi High Court has held the president and general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) guilty of contempt of court for their failure to comply with the court’s directions to pay salaries to the employees of Guru Harkrishan Public Schools (GHPS) as per the sixth and seventh pay commissions.
The high court observed that Sikhism preaches the ideals of honesty and generosity in everyday life, and various philanthropic and charitable causes are being discharged by the community and its leaders but it should be kept in mind that “charity begins at home”, and there is no point of such philanthropic activities when its own teachers and staff of the schools are ill-treated and not given their rightful dues.
The court held Harmeet Singh Kalka, president of the DSGMC, and Jagdeep Singh Khalon, general secretary of the DSGMC, guilty of contempt of court and issued a show cause notice to them on the quantum of punishment to be awarded.
As the president and general secretary of DSGMC and the honorary secretary of the GHPS (ND) Society Mandeep Kaur expressed helplessness to comply with the court’s earlier order citing lack of funds, Justice Navin Chawla ordered a forensic audit of the accounts of the society and the 12 schools managed by it from April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023. The court said they do not deserve to be in the management of either GHPS (ND) Society or DSGMC.
“The religion of Sikhism preaches the ideals of honesty, compassion, humanity, humility, and generosity in everyday life. While there is no doubt that various philanthropic and charitable causes are being discharged by the community and its leaders, at the same time, it should be kept in mind that charity begins at home’.
“There is no point of such philanthropic activities and values when its own teachers and staff of the schools, who are helping to lay down the foundation of a good and progressive society by imparting education and instilling moral values to young students and helping in running the said institutions, are ill-treated and not given their rightful dues, on the other hand are rather made to suffer the agony of approaching this court repeatedly for the same,” the high court said in a judgment passed on Monday.
It said the salary and other financial perquisites of the members of the GHPS (ND) Society and the DSGMC shall also be withheld till further orders or till the entire dues of the employees, teaching and non-teaching staff of the schools are fully paid.
Regarding the people manning the previous management committees, the court directed them to file their affidavit within four weeks to show cause why they be not held guilty of having committed contempt of court and be punished for the same.
The court’s decision came on a batch of petitions filed by the staff of the 12 schools run by the GHPS Society alleging non-compliance with the high court’s November 16, 2021 order by which the society and DSGMC were ordered to pay their salaries and arrears as per the recommendations of the sixth and seventh pay commissions.
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This order was challenged in appeal and when the matter was heard, several assurances were made by the authorities to the court that the salaries will be paid and the dues will also be cleared.
Justice Chawla, however, held that those assurances and undertakings were given merely to buy time and now the blame was being sought to be passed on to the previous managements.
“The financial incapacity to clear the arrears and pay even the current dues, as pleaded by the respondents, only strengthens the belief of this Court that there is gross mis-management of the affairs of the schools, GHPS (ND) Society, and to some extent, even of the DSGMC,” the high court said, adding that judicial orders are bound to be obeyed at all costs and cannot be permitted to be circumvented.
