Bombay HC restrains MU from terminating temporary staff

Mumbai: In a breather for hundreds of temporary non-teaching staff of the Mumbai University, the Bombay high court has restrained the varsity from terminating their services and directed it to pay all their pending dues.

A single bench of Justice A.K. Menon upheld portions of a 2018 judgment of an industrial court in the city restraining the university from terminating the services of around 900 temporary employees without due process of law.

Justice Menon held that the petitioners deserved relief and that the university had definitely violated the provisions of the MRTU and PULP Act.

The judge also observed, “In my view, if education is an industry, the university is one of its crucibles. That having been said, the industrial court has rightly come to the conclusion that the university is not an industrial establishment as contemplated under the Model Standing Orders.”

The industrial court had held at the time that in terminating the services of these employees in 2014, the university had violated the provisions of the Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Unions and Prevention of Unfair Labour Practices Act, 1971 (MRTU and PULP Act).

The industrial court had also directed the university to pay the dues of these employees from the date of its order.

However, these employees, several employees’ unions, and the university moved the high court last year, challenging parts of the industrial court’s order.

While the employees wanted that they be paid their dues from the time they filed the plea, the university argued that it was not an industrial body and therefore, the issue was out of the court’s jurisdiction.

The varsity also argued before the high court that the employees had been hired on a temporary basis and they were well aware of this fact at the time of their appointment.

The petitioners filed the plea before the industrial court on behalf of 938 employees in 2014.

They claimed they had been working for the university for several years and therefore, must be regularised.

The plea said they had completed duty for 240 days in 12 months, as required by the university rules for one to seek regularisation of one’s post.

However, the university refused to regularise their posts and instead, began terminating their services without following due procedure, they claimed.