Dispose of Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute property to pay employees’ salary: High court
he petitioners were among 100 employees, who have been waiting for their salaries for the last 41 months as the institute is facing a severe financial crisis. Employees of the institute had filed writ petitions complaining about non-payment of their salary since December 2019.
harmandeep.singh@htlive.com
The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the principal secretary of technical education department to dispose of the property of the Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology, an autonomous college, to pay the salaries to petitioners, who are employees of the institute, within a month.
The court of justice Anil Kshetarpal has also ordered the department to restrain the institute from disposing of its property before the petitioners get paid.
The petitioners were among 100 employees, who have been waiting for their salaries for the last 41 months as the institute is facing a severe financial crisis. Employees of the institute had filed writ petitions complaining about non-payment of their salary since December 2019.
According to the petitioners, the department had earlier stated in the court that the services of the employees have been retrenched but later it failed to produce any documents in this regard.
Ajit Singh, one of the 23 petitioners, said, “The department tried to mislead the court. However, justice has prevailed.”
The order further reads, “Keeping in view the aforesaid facts, this court is left with no choice but to direct the principal secretary, department of technical education and industrial training, Punjab, who is a member of the board of governors of the institute to dispose of the property of the institute in order to pay the amount to the petitioners within a period of one month from today, positively.”
“The interim order restraining the institute from disposing of its property before settling the preferential claim of the petitioners, who are employees, shall continue to operate till the claim of the petitioners is settled,” it further reads.
Initially, the institute started as a polytechnic college in 1995. Later, in 2005, the institute was recreated as an autonomous body named after freedom fighter Baba Hira Singh Bhattal, father of former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. The college stopped admissions to four-year engineering courses in 2020. However, diploma courses are still being run, and only three students are enrolled in these courses.
