Following the demand raised by the Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teacher's Organisation (MFUCTO), the state government on Monday announced the release of 71 days' salary of over 12,500 teachers which was withheld for seven years. The state released a government resolution (GR) on Monday directing concerned officials to release the salaries agreeing to an amount of Rs 1,91,81,98,669.
According to MFUCTO, over 12,500 teachers of 11 universities of Maharashtra who had participated in a protest from February 4, 2013 to May 10, 2013, were not paid their due salaries for 71 days. The protest during the semester examination time was staged for several pending issues such as discrepancies in the National Eligibility Test (NET) exam and Sixth Pay Commission. The state government had not paid salaries of teachers who participated in the protest claiming "No work no pay" policy.
Tapati Mukhopadhyay, president of MFUCTO, said, "Teachers who participated in the protest completed examination, assessment and academic work during that period. The results of semester examinations were also declared on time. The state had no right to withhold salaries of teachers who had completed their work."
On January 23, 2019, the Bombay High Court (HC) directed to release the amount equivalent to 71 days' salary of teachers as expeditiously as possible, and in any event, before March 30, 2019. The Supreme Court (SC) on March 2, 2020 upheld the Bombay HC direction and dismissed the special leave petition filed by the state.
But, members of MFUCTO said the state government did not release the salary or issue a GR despite court orders. SP Lawande, general secretary of MFUCTO, said, "The state government did not release salaries of these teachers for the last seven years despite directions of the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court. The court had directed the state to release salaries as the government itself had admitted that 'No work no pay' was not applicable because teachers had completed their assigned academic duty during the protest. But then the lockdown was initiated and the state government did not bother to release the remuneration."
