Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra govt and the Nagpur University (RTMNU) to pay Rs 5 lakh each to former professor Shoma Sen, who is an accused in Koregaon Bhima-Elgar Parishad case, as part of her gratuity and provident fund.
Sen, who is presently in jail, had approached the high court claiming that the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University withheld her gratuity and PF since her retirement in 2018.
The high court had earlier this month directed the varsity to pay a sum of Rs five lakh to Sen as an interim arrangement.
The RTMNU, however, filed an application seeking to deposit the sum with the court's Registry instead of paying it directly to Sen.
While hearing applications of RTMNU and Sen on Friday, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ravi Deshpande noted that the varsity had dragged its feet in processing the pension papers of Sen.
"It is most unfortunate that during these testing times, a retired teacher has been left to fend for herself without the University taking adequate care and interest to clear her dues," the court said.
Sen's advocate Prakash Meghe told the court that she was entitled to a sum of Rs 14 lakh as part of her gratuity.
The bench dismissed the application filed by the RTMNU seeking to deposit the money with the Registry of the court.
"We direct the University to pay the sum of Rs 5,00,000 to the petitioner within a week," the court ordered.
