THIS IS FOR ICAR NATIONAL FELLOWS

                             

                      (Who is the employer of ICAR National Fellow ?)

I am writing blogs since 2008 (www.indianschistosomiasis.blogspot.com) but never tried to put my personal feelings or difficulties in the blog. But this time, if I do not express myself, I may be blamed by my future ICAR national fellows of concealing an important Madhya Pradesh High Court decision which may also affect their service career, adversely ,by referring this High Court decision by future administrators . Also there is a hope that the matter will be taken up by the concerned persons to rectify this anomaly. Therefore, I considered it prudent to narrate present position as regards to national fellow pay protection or granting of NPA to the Veterinary national fellows whose university is still not providing NPA . Prior writing this blog , I surfed ICAR website to look into the list of past or present ICAR National fellows  but I could not find details either of present or past ICAR National fellows –reconfirming my write up (15^th August,2013 in  www.indianparasitologists.blogspot.com ) how our premier institute websites are neglecting their own eminent scientists (as per proclamation of ICAR) by not providing any information regarding them.

To begin with, I have joined on 15^th January,1968 Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV), College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh as Demonstrator and was Associate Professor/Scientist since 1984 in the Department of Parasitology. As a result of an all India interview , I received appointment letter of Professor of Parasitology , Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar which I joined in September, 1994.

However, in January, 1995 I was awarded ICAR National fellowship in Parasitology to work on some aspects of Indian schistosomiasis hence I came back to JNKVV and joined ICAR National Fellow on 12^th January,1995 which I remained till July, 2000 ; incidentally, this happened first national fellow award in Parasitology in India and first in JNKVV in any faculty since its inception i.e. October , 1964 (even till date no other faculty  has received this award).

For implementing this fellowship, as you are aware, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between ICAR, Vice Chancellor of JNKVV and me. The MOU vide item (vi) has clearly mentioned “ He will continue to be an employee of the parent institution till his superannuation”. Further, our pay fixation was done by JNKVV under the direction of ICAR letter No. 27(16)/94-Edn III dated  11^th October,1994 which implicitly mentioned “ In service condition, it has been provided that for all practical purpose scientists appointed as National Fellow will continue to be an employee of the parent institutions”. It is important to note that JNKVV has never raised any question on above issues and has never sought any clarification from ICAR  .

Under Career Advancement Scheme, I was placed as Professor since 27.7.1998 by JNKVV and my basic pay on 27.7.1998 was fixed as Rs 17750/ ,after protecting my basic pay of national fellow  vide order No. 5378/Estt/I/Vety/2003 dated 15.01.2003. However, this was questioned  and my pay was reduced by Local Fund Audit (LFA) , JNKVV , but without cancelling previous order , to Rs 16400/ vide JNKVV order Compt/PFC/492/149/7261  dated 8.10.2004 ; thus my pay on national fellow was not protected.

My representations to this regard were not heeded and I retired from JNKVV services on 31^st January,2005 . When JNKVV was planning to fix my pension as per reduced pay, I had no alternate then to lodge a writ petition in Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur (No. 14144/2005) with Vice Chancellor, JNKVV and Deputy Director, LFA as respondents. The LFA in its reply mentioned that I was posted at ICAR, New Delhi (an erroneous notion) as National Fellow and when joined back JNKVV,Jabalpur , I was considered on deputation for national fellow period. The JNKVV replied that earlier they did correct pay fixation but since this was objected by LFA, it had no option but to follow the dictates of LFA as JNKVV has to take grants from state government which is subjected to approval by LFA.

As every one of us, serving a Government organization, is aware that grant and joining on deputation requires lot of orders and entry in the service book and nothing was done for this national fellowship . Moreover, JNKVV has no provision of granting deputation to the teachers and it provides only lien as it was given to me while joining Hisar ,after issuing number of orders and handing over and taking over of the charges- nothing of this sort was done for national fellow post.

Orders on my writ petition was issued by Hon’ble Judge (Shri R.K.Gupta) of the High Court on 09.02.2010 accepting my writ petition and rejecting the arguments of the respondents , particularly since they failed to produce any documents issued for deputation and not raising any objection while fixing my pay as national fellow , following letter of ICAR (where I was treated as JNKVV employee ).

As a follow up of this Court’s orders, The LFA asked JNKVV (End.No. RDD/280 dated 4^th March,2010) to forward the papers so that my pay fixation should be done as per Court’s orders. Obviously, there was no iota of doubt of restoring my previous pay fixation order as per Court’s orders especially when Dr Gautam Kaloo was the Vice Chancellor of JNKVV who had been Deputy Director General of ICAR and supposed to  create and maintain atmosphere for promoting high class research in JNKVV. Surprisingly, this did not happen and taking a U- turn, JNKVV filed a writ appeal ( 187/2010) in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur making me and LFA as the respondents .

This time, JNKVV pleaded me on deputation on national fellow post as the orders were issued by ICAR (in fact , it is memorandum and not order and will be operational only when all the parties (JNKVV, ICAR, National fellow)agree to the terms ,laid down in the MOU , my joining was forwarded to ICAR, salary was dispersed by ICAR and I was working on an ICAR research project. While LFA did not reply , I provided additional support disputing JNKVV claims.

Is it not a criminal act to plead in the Court of Law by the institute against the MOU ,signed by itself or concealing other documents in this regards ?  Is it just to raise the questions after 15 years of implementation of national fellow project in the court of law , which were never raised earlier ?  But who is there to look after such matters ?

After hearing the petitioner and respondents ,the Double Bench of the High Court opined “ when a person is working for and being paid salary by a wholly independent employer, he cannot be deemed to be in normal service of the parent employer for whom he is neither working nor being paid by such parent employer”. However, the double bench did not issue orders and instead remanded the case for final hearing again to a single judge of the High Court. In his order dated 31.01.2013, Hon’ble Judge Shri Sanjay Yadav of the High Court opined that the finding of the double bench of my being on deputation has not been challenged by me in higher forum hence has attained finality. Thus, the court dismissed my petition ,declaring me on deputation to ICAR during national fellow period.

As the High Court considered me on deputation during national fellow period, I ,being a Registered Veterinarian ,  applied to the ICAR on March 2013 ,with enclosing both court orders and other documents , to  provide me NPA (25% of basic pay) and central dearness allowance for national fellow period. The Asstt Director General (Education) ICAR asked me to forward different documents, including my registration certificate to State Veterinary Council which I did and this correspondence continued for about a year. At last, by its letter No. 27/3/2013-HRD/Part III dated 25^th March, 2014 , ICAR rejected my request of providing NPA stating “ In view of the provisions laid out in the MOU signed between the three parties, the National Fellow cannot be considered to be on deputation to ICAR during his national fellowship tenure and consequently the Council has no obligation to pay NPA or Dearness Allowance at Central Govt rates for that matter .”

In light of the above ICAR letter , I wrote a letter (dated 15th April,2014) to the Vice Chancellor, JNKVV with a copy to the Chancellor of JNKVV and Director General of ICAR that either my pay fixation should be done by JNKVV considering me in service during national fellow period as per ICAR notion or ICAR should provide me NPA as per court orders and I will accept any of the two verdicts . But I could not get either .  And none is interested to solve the case of national fellow hence till now I have received  no claims from any organization  .

In the present situation, the Asia’s biggest Agriculture University (JNKVV) does not consider national fellow as his employee ; neither the World’s largest Agriculture Research Organization (ICAR) considers national fellow as their employee. Thus I had no employer during national fellowship period. Is there any other example in any government organization where an employee is working continuously for five years without an employer ? How you and our administrators   will react over this whole episode  ?

The most frustrated person in this whole episode is my better half who questions “ what  you have received by leaving professor’s post of Hisar in 1995 and joining JNKVV back as national fellow. You have left a professor's post , NPA, a comfortable life to join national fellow and still struggling for your correct pay fixation (without NPA) , running here and there and  facing so much stress at this age ( I am presently 72 years old ; date of birth 02.01.1943). “ So what , if Springer, Germany has published your reference  book “ Schistosomes and schistosomiasis in South Asia” (ISBN  978-81-322-0538-8) which has filled up a wide gap as there was no such book on this subject though work was continued since last one hundred years in whole of South Asia .

Our hon’ble President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee is raising the question at many forums “why there is no university of India , among 200 world class universities ? “

Our hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is stressing for  a new Agriculture revolution and giving so much importance to the Agriculture . But this is the example of  ground realities in our research organizations and universities .

In the present case , common good and public interest have suffered heavily and both organizations are responsible for this situation including the Chancellor of JNKVV who remained a mute spectator. ICAR can be blamed being non-concerned when JNKVV has not  applied its mind properly and has acted arbitrary in the case. Obviously, this is the fundamental duty of the Employer to provide just claims to their employees- and this is most important in present case as it directly affects research atmosphere in the country.  

I fervently pray that good sense will prevail on these two organizations and will come together to solve this problem (as it is not an individual problem) which will enhance research atmosphere in the country- a tall claim by both of them in their statutes ,rules and regulations.
It is a bad commentary on our part that i heard not a single voice saying it is wrong doing on the part of ICAR/JNKVV. Why a scientist should suffer and even his just claims are not settled by any organization even after lapse of 10 years of his retirement. Moreover,JNKVV is not bothered to attract fresh applicants for national fellow by clearing its stand.  Most perturbing fact is that now in services persons may be considered on deputation without issuing any orders, in this respect; it is sufficient to say so in the court of law.
As is common for any true scientist that he is adamant and continue to fight if he feels just for his cause. Therefore, i am constrained to lodge again a fresh writ petition in the honorable High Court of Madhya Pradesh (No.20650/2015) informing the court that neither my pay has been fixed by JNKVV as per first court order  nor i have been given NPA by ICAR as per double bench order. I should be provided relief from any organization.   I do not know whether i will receive judgement at my life time (i am 72 year old) but i will feel satisfied that i have not accepted gross injustice from our big organizations.
Here I express my indebtedness to Advocate shri Suyesh Guru who after reading the case has agreed to plead my case in the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur , free of cost. We feel proud that  presence of such dedicated legal persons , encourages a scientist  to fight again for his just cause.