The Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS has moved Supreme Court, seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Health Secretary PK Hota for failing to comply with the court’s order for releasing their salary for the anti-quota strike period.

The petition said that there was wilful disobedience of the court’s July 17 order asking the government to release the doctors’ pay for the period from May 14 to May 30. They sought a direction to the government to comply with the order and pay them their salary with interest on the arrears.

Since the end of the anti-quota stir, the Health Ministry had been at odds with the doctors and refused to pay them the salary for the strike period on the basis of the no-work-no-pay rule. This was challenged in the SC which, on July 17, directed the government to release the pay, with a rider that it should not be treated as a precedent.

The bench then also emphasised that it was departing from the no-work-no-pay rule only due to the assurance given by the government to students before it when the petition against the quota was being argued. The government had then assured the court that it would not take any punitive action against the students and doctors if they complied with the SC order.