The Delhi High Court has recently said that the policy of mandatorily marking of attendance by the paramedical staff of Municipal Corporation of Delhi on “MCD SMART Mobile Application” is not arbitrary or unfair.
Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said that purchasing or possession of a smart phone is not a compulsion for all employees as they have alternate methods to mark their attendance and can opt to mark themselves present either through the supervisor or any other employee’s phone.
“….the issue of privacy and security does not arise as the Application was not developed by an unknown source, rather by a body under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology where the said body has already done due diligence with regards to the potential threats of security breach,” the court added.
Justice Singh was dealing with a plea filed by Paramedical Technical Staff of MCD challenging a communication dated August 18, 2022 issued by the civic body, directing that salaries of all para medical staff of the RBIPMT and MVID hospitals will be released only after they mark their attendance through the MCD SMART App via smart phones.
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“The health care system run by the public authorities is one of the most pivotal concerns for any nation where the administration aims to provide all the necessary services at disposal of the beneficiaries. Therefore, the absence of workers entrusted to run the said system can create a situation which can hamper the effective functioning of the entire system,” the court said.
It added that the introduction of such a system is to ensure transparency and efficiency of working by state departments and timely delivery of service and welfare schemes to the public, an objective desirable for any public entity.
“Therefore, this Court does not deem it necessary to term the introduction of similar system in the respondent MCD as illegal,” the court said.
It added that the primary objective of this application is to inculcate a sense of discipline in employees, which is essential considering that their nature of work is highly patient-centric.
Furthermore, the court observed that the employees have been given multiple methods of marking their attendance, including through smart phones owned by their supervisor or through any other employees through whose application they have been mapped.
“Thus, the contention regarding forcing the employees to purchase a smart phone is rejected,” the court said.
It added: “Furthermore, the advancement of technology has helped the public sectors in many ways, however, protesting against such advancement only shows the intent of the employees to not comply with the orders of the respondent MCD.”
Case Title: PARAMEDICAL TECHNICAL STAFF WELFARE ASSOCIATION OF MCD v. GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI & ANR.
Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1350
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