The High Court of Karnataka has directed the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of the Maharani Cluster University, Bengaluru, to be personally present in the court on October 27, for not releasing salary to a professor despite the release of the amount by the State government towards payment of salary.
Despite a specific order
Deprecating the conduct of the V-C, the court said that “The attitude of the V-C in refusing to take final steps such as submission of salary bills in human resource management system (HRMS) format to ensure that the salary is released to him despite a specific order passed by the government is condemnable.”
Justice N.S. Sanjay Gowda passed the order recently on a petition filed by Prakash, who had complained that the salary was not been paid to him by the varsity despite the release of the amount by the government.
The petitioner was one among several other members of the teaching faculty, who were earlier working in the erstwhile Maharani College, and were later absorbed to the varsity, which was formed in 2019.
It was complained in the petition the salary was not paid to him since his absorption to the varsity in June 2022.
The court pointed out that the V-C and the Registrar had initially expressed certain technical difficulty in HRMS in releasing salary of another member of the teaching faculty, who too had filed a petition on non-release of salary on his absorption to the varsity. However, the court noted, the varsity later initiated action for release of the salary.
In the case of Prof. Prakash, the court noted the V-C and the Registrar are again stating that they have to examine the issue of release of salary even after the Additional Advocate-General, representing the State government pointed out, that there was no difficulty in releasing the salary.
A deliberate attempt
“This only goes to show that a deliberate attempt is being made to withhold the salary to the petitioner despite the salary being released by the Government way back in July 2023,” the Bench observed
It is not the Vice-Chancellor, who pays the salary to the petitioner as the salary is paid as a result of the funds released by the government and the V-C cannot stall the payment of salary to an employee of the varsity, the court observed.
