Patna HC Directs Bihar Education Department To Halt Coercive Action Against Universities Amid Salary Freeze Dispute
The Patna High Court directed the Bihar education department not to take coercive action against state universities and their officials till further orders, while ordering that directions for withholding salaries of VCs and freezing accounts of the institutions be "kept in abeyance".
The bench of Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by several state-run universities challenging the state government's recent order to freeze the bank accounts of the institutions and withhold salaries of VCs for not attending a meeting of the education department.
"It is accordingly directed that all the impugned orders whereby salary of university officials have been withheld and all the accounts of universities have been frozen are kept in abeyance till further orders," the Court stated.
"And moreover, in the meantime, no coercive action shall be taken against all. It is also expected that the universities will now make payment of all the retiral dues, release salary of serving employees and proceed ahead with examination schedule so that academic sessions may be maintained and regularised and the interests of the students at large may not suffer," it said.
The matter will be heard next on May 17.
"In the course of arguments, it was proposed that a meeting of all the VCs and officials of the education department may take place on May 6, at a neutral venue, Maurya Hotel, Patna, and the expenses of the meeting be borne by the state government. It is a goodwill gesture to resolve the disputes amicably," the Court stated.
It is accordingly directed that all the vice-chancellors along with registrars, controllers of examination and financial advisors of respective universities, as well as all the officials of education department including the additional chief secretary, would attend the meeting on May 6 at 11 am at Maurya Hotel, Patna, it said.
"All the aforesaid persons will participate in the meeting... it is expected that if chief secretary of Bihar remains free on that day, then (he) may preside over the aforesaid meeting. In case, he could not find time, then the meeting would take place and all the issues would be discussed in proper manner. Entire proceedings of the meeting would be videographed," the bench observed.
In March, the Bihar government ordered the freezing of the bank accounts of all, except one, state-run universities and withheld the salaries of the vice-chancellors for remaining absent from a review meeting convened by the education department in the last week of February this year.
The department had issued a letter to all VCs, barring Kameshwar Singh of Darbhanga Sanskrit University, and sought a clarification from the VCs concerned as to why they did not attend the meeting to discuss the status of pending examinations and other issues.
Cause Title: Magadh University & Ors. v. The State of Bihar
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With PTI Inputs
