Professor M. Selvan was 58 when he approached the Madras High Court in 1995 to find a solution to a service dispute between him and the management of a government aided arts and science college in Kanniyakumari district. Twenty three years have rolled since then, yet the retired professor, now 81, is yet to achieve the objective for which he approached the court.
When a contempt of court petition filed by him came up for admission before Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar, petitioner’s counsel made a fervent plea to order a short notice considering his client’s age. The judges, however, pointed out that the rules do not permit for accepting such a plea and that statutory notice could be issued only for four weeks.
Thereafter, they went on to issue the notice to the secretary of the Lakshmipuram College of Arts and Science requiring his presence before the court by April 9 since it was represented by a Special Government Pleader that the salary for the last two years of service put in by the petitioner could not be disbursed because the college management was yet to submit computation.
Retirement age reduced
According to the petitioner, an agreement reached between him and the college, when he joined service, provided for retirement at the age of 60 years. However, on February 13, 1981, a Government Order was issued reducing the retirement age to 58 years. Therefore, the college decided to relieve him from service in 1995 without allowing him to continue till 1997. He filed a writ petition and obtained an interim injunction on February 3, 1995, restraining the institution from relieving him from service. The interim order was in force until he completed 60 years and he also served the entire period without any salary as government grant for that period was not sanctioned.
Ultimately, on September 18, 2008, the court dismissed the writ petition after observing that only the college and not the government would be liable to pay salary for the last two years of the petitioner’s service. The college preferred an appeal but it took another eight years for the High Court to dispose of the writ appeal.
On January 11, 2017, a Bench, comprising then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Mr. Justice Sundar, ordered that the State government was also equally liable to pay the salary and ordered that the dues to the petitioner should be paid both by the government as well as the college management in equal proportions.
The Bench made it clear that the dues should be paid within four weeks, failing which it would carry interest at the rate of 10% per annum. Even after that, the money was not paid and hence the present contempt of court application. During the course of arguments, it was brought to the notice of the judges that the petitioner was entitled for around ₹3.5 lakh.
