HC slams MU over the sorry state of tribunal

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday slammed Mumbai University for the ‘pathetic’ state of affairs of the School and College Tribunal, situated on the varsity’s Fort campus. The HC has asked the varsity officials to ensure that all basic amenities like infrastructure and apt staff, are provided for the Tribunal.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting the conditions of the Tribunal. The PIL claims that there is no basic infrastructure, clerical staff in the Tribunal and more surprisingly the Judge of the Tribunal has no stenographer, no toilet facility and also no accommodation facility.

Pursuant to the bench’s earlier direction, a Judicial Registrar had filed his report after personally visiting the Tribunal.

After perusing the report, Justice Oka said, “We regret to state that the state of affairs of the Tribunal are pathetic and that there are no proper facilities for the presiding officer. Suffice it to say that the university has failed to provide amenities to the presiding officer consistent to the status of his work especially him being the retired judge of this court.” The university’s counsel cited the recent ‘crisis’ of delayed results for its failure in providing the facilities.To this, Justice Oka said, “Even assuming the crisis situation in the varsity, that is no ground for not providing elementary amenities to the presiding officer that he is entitled. The varsity cannot expect the presiding officer to himself ask for the amenities.”

Posting the matter for further hearing on October 9, the judges have asked the varsity to ensure that the facilities are provided to the Tribunal within a period of two weeks. The judges also said that they would deal with the conditions of the College Tribunals of all the districts in Maharashtra.