DUTA writes to DU VC on unjustified salary cut, demands break day salary for ad-hoc teachers

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has written a letter to DU Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh on unjustified salary cut due to the notional break given to teachers working on an ad-hoc basis in Delhi University and its colleges. It also demanded that the unjustified salary cut be stopped and teachers working on an ad-hoc basis be paid full salary even that of break days.

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Explaining about the notional break, the DUTA said in the letter, “On completion of 4 months, ad-hoc teachers re-join after giving a one-day notional break in their services which at certain times may even be more due to holiday(s) on subsequent day(s). This causes substantial losses in their salary.”

“It is a notional break and there is no provision for salary cut of such break periods in Delhi University rules and UGC Regulation 2018. It may also be noted that any vacation like summer vacation are also fully paid to these teachers,” the teachers association said.

The teachers association also referred to the Supreme Court of India, Karnataka State Private College vs State of Karnataka and Ors on 29 January 1992, Para No 1 which stated “Provision of one day's break in service in the Government order is deprecated and is struck down as ultra vires.”

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“If the intention was to differentiate between appointments for more than three months and others, it was a futile exercise. That was already achieved by providing two different methods of selection; one by Selection Committee and other by Management. The distinction between appointment against temporary and permanent vacancies are well-known in-service law. It was unnecessary to make it appear crude.”

“If the purpose was to avoid any possible claim for regularisation by the temporary teachers, then it was acting more like a private business house of narrow outlook than government of a welfare State. Such provisions cannot withstand the test of arbitrariness,” the letter stated.

On March 31, the DUTA staged a protest in Lutyens' Delhi demanding a one-time regulation for the absorption of ad hoc and temporary teachers.