HC orders Nagpur University to pay Rs 5 lakh of retirement benefit to Shoma Sen

Nagpur: The Bombay High Court has directed Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University to pay Rs 5 lakh to Shoma Sen, a former professor arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, towards her retirement benefits.

A division bench of Justices R K Deshpande and N B Suryawanshi passed an interim order on Sen's petition on Thursday, asking the varsity to release the amount in a week.

Sen, who is in jail since she was arrested in 2018, has moved the Nagpur bench of the high court against the university's decision to withhold her gratuity and Provident Fund.

Sen was head of the Post Graduate Department of English at the varsity and retired in July 2018.

But before that, in June 2018, the varsity suspended her from service following her arrest and withheld the retirement benefits. She moved the HC through her lawyer Prakash Meghe seeking the release of her pension and other benefits.

The high court in its interim order noted that the varsity failed to provide a satisfactory explanation as to why the benefits were withheld.

The court posted the petition for further hearing after four weeks.

"In the meantime, we direct the University to pay an amount of 5,00,000 to the petitioner within a period of one week, without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.

This shall be subject to further adjustment upon final adjudication," the court said.

Sen was among those who were arrested following the Pune Police's investigation into the Elgar Parishad conclave of December 31, 2017, which had been allegedly backed by the Maoists, and the violence near Bhima-Koregaon war memorial the next day.