Retrospective re-fixing of pay, pension post retirement against law: Madras HC
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently quashed an order passed by the Registrar of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) re-fixing the pension amount of a superannuated non-teaching staff.
Justice RN Manjula, while quashing the order based on a petition filed by former non-teaching staff R Rajamani, said that he had retired from the MKU in November 1988, but the registrar of the university in March 2024 had reduced the petitioner's pension on the grounds that the scale of pay was wrongly fixed.
The local fund audit department raised an objection to the pension amount and said that the pay was on a higher scale. So, the registrar reduced the pension amount, starting from December 2023, and passed an order related to it in March 2024. Moreover, Rajamani was not issued any prior notice about the order.
Observing that the petitioner had retired from service by superannuation, the court noted that the relationship between him and the university had concluded. Hence, the university has no authority to re-fix his salary and the consequential benefits of the petitioner, added the court.
Highlighting its previous judgement, Justice Manjula said that only the MKU's syndicate has the power to appoint the university's staff and fix their emoluments. The re-fixation of salary and consequential pensionary benefits post retirement, retrospectively, is not in accordance with law, the court noted, and directed MKU to reimburse the due amount to the petitioner, with interest, within 12 weeks.