Delhi HC constitutes Committee to extend canteen and medical facilities to Clerks

The Delhi High Court has constituted a Committee to work out the formalities and lay down guidelines with respect to extending canteen and medical facilities to the members of the Delhi High Court Bar Clerks’ Association..The Committee would consist of Senior Advocates Arvind Nigam, Kirti Uppal, Inderbir Singh Alag, Delhi High Court Bar Association President and Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur, DHCBA Secretary Advocate Abhijat and President of the Clerks Association Rashpal Thakur..The Committee would also include the High Court Registrar General Dinesh Sharma and two officers nominated by him..As per the order passed by a Division Bench of the then Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi, the Committee “may deliberate upon all issues connected with this aspect i.e. providing canteen facility and use of Dispensary facility” and submit its report..The Court was hearing a petition by the Clerks’ Association, seeking to safeguard and secure their “right to social justice, health, medical care, social security and a living working condition”..The Clerks’ Association consists of around 3,500 members who are recognized, registered and authorized by the High Court to work as law clerks..Observing that the members of the Clerks Association are also part and parcel of the justice dispensation system, the Court stated,.“..we are of the view that at least the medical facilities available in the Dispensary at Delhi High Court and the canteen facility available to the employees of the Registry should be and needs to be extended to the members of the petitioner association.....this court can visualise the difficulties being faced by the members of the petitioner association with regard to the need for medical facility and canteen facility while discharging their duties from early morning till late night in the Court Campus.”.It, however, said that in order to provide these facilities “certain basic formalities and guidelines” were required to be laid down to “maintain discipline” and address other related issues..The Court thus proceeded to constitute a Committee to address this situation..While requesting the Registrar General to submit the report of the Committee before the next date of hearing, the Court urged the Committee to conclude its deliberation within six weeks..The matter would be heard next on July 25..The Clerks’ Association is represented by Senior Advocates Arvind Nigam, Inderbir Singh Alag, Kirti Uppal with Advocates Mehtaab Singh Sandhu, Sandeep Das, Pratishth Kaushal, Harsh Kumar, Aditya Awasthi and Jyoti Kataria Bajaj..Centre was represented by Standing Counsel Ripu Daman Bhardwaj. Delhi Government was represented by its Additional Standing Counsel Anuj Aggarwal with Advocate Atul Goyal..The High Court was represented by Advocates Viraj R Datar and Nitish Chaudhary..Read the order: