New Delhi, April 10: In one of the longest running service battles the country has ever witnessed, the court ruled in favour of BJP leader and former Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Subramanian Swamy. He would now be getting his entire salary dues with 8% interest from the Institute. Swamy had joined IIT Delhi as a Professor of Economics in 1969 but he was terminated without notice in 1972 due to his animosity with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The services of his wife, Dr. Roxna Swamy, who taught mathematics at the institute, were also terminated without notice. They were evicted from their staff quarters abruptly.
Swami was terminated without notice in 1972 due to critical views on Indira Gandhi’s economic policies
Swamy had come to India from Harvard after being assured by Prof. Amartya Sen that he would be appointed at the Delhi School of Economics. Prof. Sen was the head of the institution at the time. However, Sen could not fulfil his promise and changed his decision due to protests from other Left leaning academicians. Swamy was then appointed at IIT Delhi as Professor of Economics by the then selection chairman, Dr. Manmohan Singh. However, Swamy’s pro market views and harsh criticism of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s policies led to his sudden termination from the institute.
Although Swamy went to teach at Harvard in summer semesters after that, he continued to fight the case of his illegal termination in India since then. In 1991, the trial court declared the termination as “null and void” after which he joined the institute for one day and resigned the next day. Swamy then claimed his entire salary for 19 years, i.e. 1972 to 1991. This claim attracted more than its due share of political attention a number of delaying tactics were put into play by those who did not favour him.
Payment of due salary was delayed primarily due to Arun Jailey’s legal opinion given to IIT in 1993
India’s topmost lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, fought against Swamy and went to the extent of saying that those favouring Swamy’s case in IIT would face criminal prosecution. After two years, i.e. in 1993, Jethmalani’s legal associate- Arun Jaitley- provided a surprising legal opinion to IIT. As per the opinion, Swamy was entitled to his salary for the period but the amount he had earned from Harvard during the period in question was to be deducted from his payable salary. Swamy ridiculed Jaitley’s opinion saying that if his Harvard salary had to be deducted, he would actually have to pay back IIT. He also pointed out that the rule that Jaitley was quoting was not applicable to an IIT. However, the flawed legal advice was used by IIT and Swamy’s academic and political rivals for a long time to delay the salary dues.
During the current BJP regime, both HRD Ministers- Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar- had suggested IIT Delhi to have an out-of-court settlement with Swamy as delaying the matter could cost the public exchequer a huge amount as interest. Despite the suggestion, IIT continued with the legal battle until now. Additional District Judge Vineeta Goyal delivered the long awaited judgement on April 8th, 2019 by ordering payment of due salary with interest to Swamy. Taking the interest into account, Swamy would be receiving an amount over INR 40 lakhs from IIT Delhi.
