Above: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar on Tuesday (November 14) dealing with writ petition seeking a direction to the government and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to make immediate payment of the arrears said that changing of counsel was not allowed and ordered that the counsel who represented the government last time should appear on the next hearing.

The government had submitted a request for the change of counsel. The Court listed the matter to November 25, 2017.

The petitioner Rahul Birla also seeks direction to the authorities to immediately implement the recommendations of the fourth Finance Commission. Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel had urged the court to direct the EDMC to issue medical cashless cards to its sanitation workers.

Scores of the EDMC sanitation workers and other three MCDs went on strike in January 2015, October 2015 and January 2016 which had exacerbated the sanitary conditions in the capital creating an impending risk of epidemic, the plea has said.

—India Legal Bureau