JNUTA demands immediate release of pension to retired faculty members

NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Thursday demanded the immediate release of pension and other benefits of retired faculty members withheld by the university. The university administration was not following court orders on the matter, it alleged.

"In standing with the retired faculty in their fight for justice, JNUTA demands the immediate release of all pension and all other benefits to all retired faculty whose dues have been withheld by the administration on the orders of the vice-chancellor," the JNUTA said.

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In 2019, 48 faculty members were charge-sheeted under the CCS rules for participating in a one-day protest the previous year. "It is shameful that he has managed to not only get the Executive Council to approve the action based on deliberate misinformation such as charge sheeting 48 faculty, invoking the CCS rules, despite the recording of the EC decision of October 2018 confirming the non-incorporation of CCS rules into the JNU Ordinances relating to service conditions of teachers," the teachers' body statement read.

In August 2019, the Delhi High Court had stayed the chargesheet and major penalty inquiry proceedings invoking CCS rules against the faculty. "Yet despite that the vice-chancellor went ahead and ordered the holding back of pensions and other benefits for faculty as and when they retired. Individual faculty members were therefore forced to approach the courts for remedy," the statement said.

On November 23, 2020, the Delhi High Court observed that pension is neither a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer and also not an ex gratia payment but a payment for past services rendered. The teachers' body said that it has been nearly a year since the high court came out with the order but JNU has still not released the benefits for the faculty albeit it was directed to do so by the court.

"The university has in fact held back pension benefits such as gratuity, leave encashment for four other faculty, who have also been forced to approach the court for remedy," the JNUTA claimed. The Delhi High Court on October 29 ordered JNU to immediately release the money within six weeks at an interest of nine per cent.

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"The fact that these decisions were taken in the midst of the Covid pandemic, shows the insensitiveness of the vice-chancellor and his team. That professor Rajat Datta who passed away battling cancer last month while waiting for his pension dues, is a reflection of the rot that has been fostered by none other than professor Jagadesh Kumar in his tenure as the head of the institution," the teachers' association said. No immediate reaction was available from the university.