JUDGMENT

CHANDRA DHARI SINGH, J.

1. The present petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking the following reliefs:

“a) Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ/direction/order to Respondent 2 to Quash the order 18.08.2022.

b) Issue an order or direction to the Respondent 2 to provide alternate method of attendance.

c) Issue an order or direction to the respondent to launch secure application which should be available on official play store.

d) Pass any other or further order which this Hon’ble court may sympathetically deem fit and proper in the interest of justice.”

FACTUAL MATRIX

2. The petitioner Association in the instant writ petition is a registered union representing the interests of “para medical technical staff” employed by respondent no. 2/Municipal Corporation of Delhi („MCD‟ hereinafter). Respondent MCD issued an order dated 18^th August, 2022 („impugned order‟ hereinafter) whereby it directed that the salaries of all employees of the RBIPMT and MVID hospitals (which includes members of the petitioner Association) would be released only after they marked their daily attendance through the MCD SMART App („the Application‟ hereinafter) via smart phones. The relevant part of the order reads as follows:

“In compliance with circular no DCA/(HQ)/MCD/2022- 23/D-193 dated 01.08.22 all employees of RBIPMT and MVID hospitals are hereby again directed to ensure marking of their daily attendance on MCD SMART App. If any employee faces any difficulty in marking attendance through MCD App they can approach IT dept 24^th floor civic center to resolve the issue.

As per the above circular salary of august 2022 paid in September will be released based on attendance on MCD SMART APP attendance.”

3. Relevant portion of the earlier order dated 1^st August, 2022 reads as follows:

“All DDOs should record a certificate on the salary bill that the same has been prepared as per the attendance marked on the MCD Smart Mobile App. The Pay & Accounts Offices are directed to release the salary for the month of August, 2022 paid in September, 2022 only on the certificate recorded by DDOs on Salary Bills.”

4. The petitioner Association made a written representation to respondent MCD on 5^th August, 2022 assailing this order and requesting that the respondent address the various grievances raised by its employees regarding the feasibility of compliance with these orders.

5. Aggrieved by the lack of action taken by the respondent, the petitioner has preferred the instant petition.

6. During the course of proceedings, this Court vide interim order dated 12^th September, 2022 and directed respondent MCD to ensure that the salaries of employees of the petitioner Association are not withheld on account of them being unable to mark their attendance in the MCD SMART App. The relevant paragraph of the interim order is reproduced below -

“8. Till the next date, the respondent no.2 will ensure that the salaries of the employees of the petitioner/union is not withheld on account of their not being able to mark their attendance in the MCD SMART App through a smart phone.”

SUBMISSIONS

(on behalf of the petitioner)

7. The learned counsel on behalf of the petitioner submits that respondent MCD issued the impugned order/policy without looking into its feasibility and conducting a trial run of the new app-based attendance mechanism. To use the MCD SMART App, all employees are required to have a smart phone with the latest updates and access to a stable internet connection.

8. It is submitted that most employees to whom the said policy is being implemented belongs to Group C and D categories who do not have financial stability. These employees do not have smart phones and do not know how to operate the MCD SMART App on their phones.

9. It is further submitted that there is no stable Wi-Fi facility in the hospitals and there is a network issue at the premises, thus the employees are unable to use the Application thereby, leading them being mark