The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday has dismissed a Public Interest Litigation as withdrawn filed by an ex ACP against salary cut and lack of PPEs to the Police Personnel’s who are on frontline in fight against Coronavirus across the country.
The petitioner is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police who had filed the petition before the Supreme court seeking directions to the Central Government & State Governments to make provisions for the payment ‘risk and hardship’ allowance, incentives in form of bonus, additional salary to the police officers who are presently serving on the frontline in view of the present lock down situation due to the COVID 19 situation in the country.
The petitioner said that that police personnel functioning in the country fall under the control and responsibility of the Respondents. Under the circumstances, when entire country has been kept in lockdown, and the citizenry have been forced to keep indoors, the police officials who have been thus deployed are not only responsible for maintaining law and order situation, but also to ensure that the lock down is followed strictly which is also putting the police personnel, along with health officials, directly in the front line, and making them vulnerable to contracting Covid-19.
As some of the zones in the country, especially in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, etc. have been declared containment areas, therefore increasing the need and responsibility of the police personnel to ensure that these areas continuously remain under lockdown, strictly and this is going to lead to a further work force by the police personnel to ensure that the Covid-19 is not spread, thereby subjecting their own person to risk.
Various incidents of Police Personnel’s getting infected with Novel Coronavirus during duty was listed by the petitioner on the basis of news report which includes, a head constable of age 56 years old in Hyderabad was detected with COVID 19, and had been admitted to a local hospital for treatment, a traffic policeman in Delhi was tested positive for COVID 19, old constable in Virar, Mumbai, was tested positive for Covid-19, two police officers tested positive for COVID 19 and were made to stay at hotels, an ASI of the Delhi Police who was posted at AIIMS tested positive for COVID 19, and thereafter over 30 police personnel were placed in quarantine.
“Although some State viz State of Haryana and State of Telangana have sought to encourage and appreciate the efforts of the Police personnel’s by paying them double salary, at the same time few States have infact in a way penalised the officers by deducting their salaries upto 25% to 35% which is detriment to the interest and moral of several officers who are on field trying to contain this deadly virus which has taken several lives across the Globe”, said the petitioner.
The case was heard by the division bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul & Justice B. R. Gavai which observed that the petitioner has prayed to withdraw the writ petition to enable him to represent before the appropriate authority. Thus, the writ petition was dismissed as withdrawn.
-India Legal Bureau