The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to file a reply on a petition filed by a retired professor seeking direction to the varsity to release his gratuity money and encash his earned leave.
A bench of Justice Jyoti Singh sought the JNU's response on retired professor Ramakrishna Ramaswamy's plea and listed the matter for further hearing on August 6.
Meanwhile, the JNU has informed the court that the professor had left for Kazakhstan without seeking permission from the competent authority in violation of the university rules.
Ramaswamy, in his plea filed through advocate Alex Joseph and Indrajeet, sought directions to the respondent varsity- JNU -- to forthwith release the gratuity and earned leave encashment, along with the interest at the rate of 18 percent per month.
The 66-year-old professor has challenged the "illegal, mfestly arbitrary and mala fide" action of the varsity to withhold the gratuity and earned leave encashment, on account of his superannuation, from the services on October 31, 2018.
He also urged the court to direct the university to issue "no dues certificate" in his favour.
The petitioner is currently associated as a Professor (Visiting) in the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
Ramaswamy had joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the year 1986 as one of the first faculty members of the School of Physical Sciences.
In addition to a professorship in the School of Physical Sciences, he was also on the faculty of the Centre for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in the School for Computational and Integrative Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
In the year 2011, the President of India had appointed Ramaswamy as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad in Telangana.
Due to personal and unforeseen circumstances, Ramaswamy tendered his resignation as the Vice-Chancellor and remitted the said office in January 2015, before concluding the tenure and resumed to his substantive position at the JNU in New Delhi.
( With inputs from ANI )