The Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) recently referenced William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar to criticise an administrative fiasco where a government employee in Rohtak was erroneously marked as deceased in official records, depriving him of his salary.
The panel likened the situation to a “grim inversion” of Shakespeare’s idea that the dead sometimes wield greater influence than the living, underscoring how official records have inflicted “indignity and avoidable hardship” on a hapless worker.
The commission, on August 14, took suo motu cognisance of a news report about one Vijay Kumar, a resident of Valmiki Basti at Ramlila Parao, employed in the Public Health Engineering Department. Despite being alive and performing his duties, Kumar’s record erroneously marked him as dead, leading to prolonged non-payment of wages since Covid.
“This is despite the fact that he is very much alive and continues to perform his duties regularly,” the order noted, highlighting the department’s failure to update records on the portal of Haryana Kaushal Rojgar Nigam (HKRN), the agency streamlining the recruitment process for employees in various government departments.
“The Commission is reminded of the well-known sentiment from Shakespeare’s play namely Julius Caesar, wherein it is suggested that the dead may, at times, wield greater influence than the living. The present matter, however, reflects a grim inversion of that idea—a person who is unquestionably alive and faithfully performing his duties has, for official purposes, been treated as deceased,” noted the order by the panel comprising Chairperson Justice Lalit Batra and Judicial Member Kuldip Jain.
This erroneous classification, the order stated, not only deprived Kumar of lawful remuneration but also caused “undue financial strain and emotional distress” to him and his family.
The panel flagged it as a violation of human rights, particularly the right to livelihood and dignity under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, and Article 7 of the United Nations’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which ensures “just and favourable conditions of work, including remuneration that ensures a decent living”.
Finding prima facie evidence of “administrative negligence,” the panel observed a “striking contradiction”: the department’s records declare Kumar “deceased,” yet his “daily presence at the workplace and faithful discharge of duties bear living testimony to the contrary”. Such inaction, it added, undermines a person’s “right to work with dignity and creates avoidable hardship and uncertainty”.
The HHRC directed immediate action, calling for reports from the additional deputy commissioner, Rohtak, and the commissioner and secretary of the Citizen Resources Information Department (CRID), on updates to Kumar’s Aadhaar card.
It also instructed executive engineer Sandeep Kumar, engineer-in-chief, Public Health Engineering Department, Panchkula; and superintending engineer, Rohtak, to submit a detailed report within four weeks on correcting records, disbursing pending salaries, and ensuring departmental accountability.
The case is listed for next hearing on September 23.