Pay teachers pension, interest on dues, HC tells civic body

Pulling up the Brihanmumbai Muncipal Corporation (BMC) for withholding its teachers’ dues for the past 30 years and paying pension after deductions, the Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the civic body to pay their pension without any deductions. The court also said that the BMC is liable to pay 12 per cent interest on their dues. A division bench of Justice S.J. Vazifdar and Justice K.R. Sriram was hearing the petition filed by two teachers — Hemalatha Varadan and Madhavi Pradhan. The retired teachers, in their petition, have stated that they were appointed as “trained teachers” in aided schools by the BMC. The civic body, however, at the time of their retirement took a stand that they were not qualified and labelled them as “untrained teachers”, denying them proper pension, the petition states. The civic body is also in the process of recovering the difference in salary of a trained teacher and an untrained one by giving them a lower pension, it adds. Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Rahul Walia informed the court that both the retired teachers were getting a meagre pension of `3,000 and even after around 30 years of service, they were denied their gratuity and other dues. Taking cognisanse of the teachers’ plight, the court directed the BMC to pay pension without any deductions. “They (BMC) shall be liable to pay an interest of 12 per cent of gratuity and other dues in favour of the petitioners,” said the court.