7th Pay Commission Latest News: Central Government Employees, you can't lose salary for refusing to do this

7th Pay Commission Latest News:  Are you a Central Government Employee? Thanks to Bombay High Court, here's some really good news for you! As per a latest order of the court, the Central government cannot deny you salary if you have refused to link bank account with your Aadhaar card. 

The Supreme Court of India has already made bank account-Aadhaar linking non-mandatory. Reading the apex court decision along with the Bombay high court order, it is clear that the Centre would have to pay back salary to all those employees who didn't link their bank account with Aadhaar before the SC verdict.  

The high court order on Monday came in connection with a case of a port trust employee, whose salary was stopped since 2016 as he didn't link salary account with Aadhaar. Adjudicating the case, the Bombay High Court questioned the Centre's decision of withholding this central government employee's salary. 

ALSO READ | 7th Pay Commission Calculator: Know how much HRA allowance, arrears central government employees get on basic salary

The high court order was passed by a division bench of justices A S Oka and S K Shinde while the petition was filed by Ramesh Purale, who was working as a chargeman with the Mumbai Port Trust. Purale had said his salary cannot be withheld over failure to link his bank account with his Aadhaar card.

A letter issued to Purale by the Union Ministry of Shipping in December 2015 had asked him to link his salary account with his Aadhaar card . Purale, however, refused to do so citing his fundamental right to privacy. 

The employee approached the court after he stopped getting salary from July 2016. 

According to a report by news agency PTI, Purale had filed an application earlier this month. In his petition, Purale relied on the Supreme Court's judgement of September 26 on the Aadhaar card issue.

ALSO READ | 7th Pay Commission: National Pension System vs Central Government Employees - What 7th CPC recommended

Questioning the Union government, Justice Oka said, ""How can you (Centre) take a stand that salary will not be given to an employee because his Aadhaar card is not linked to the salary account?" 

"We have perused the apex court's judgement. Prime facie, we are of the view that the petitioner's salary cannot be withheld on the ground that there is failure to link Aadhaar card with the bank account," he added. 

The bench has directed the Central government to pay the arrears to the employee. The matter has been posted for final hearing on January 8.

Mumbai Port Trust is a a Government of India undertaking. The employees' salaries are disbursed as per the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.