Hard fought win for Dr Ciza Thomas

It was a setback for the Kerala government when the High Court Division Bench ordered that gratuity and other retirement benefits be paid to Dr Ciza Thomas, former VC of Kerala Technical University, within two weeks.

Since the day she assumed the post of VC on the instructions of the Governor, the government used all machinations in several instances to hurt her mentally adn bring down her morale. It was part of a retaliatory move to show her the perils of turning against the government. Even after two years, the government withheld her retirement benefits citing trivial reasons. Ciza had to fight a tough legal battle in the Administrative Tribunal, and the High Court to taste success at last.

The government has been acting haughty on the issue for a long. The government very well knew that they would be forced to pay the retirement benefits if the matter reached the court. Until then, they had time to employ devious plans to delay the benefits. After all, the court will favor Ciza so why the rush? This was the attitude of the Kerala government and they succeeded in giving a few tough days to the retired vice-chancellor.

The court termed this as unacceptable and inappropriate. In a strange response, the government cited disciplinary action pending against Ciza to have forced them to delay the benefits. Investigation into disciplinary action against government employees is required to be completed before they retire. This was not followed in Ciza’s case and for sane reasons, the court was amused.

Ciza Thomas retired from teaching on March 31, 2023. However, the government has been withholding all pension benefits since then on the grounds of disciplinary action. Against this, she first approached the Administrative Tribunal and obtained a favourable verdict. However, despite the order of the Tribunal, the government was not ready to provide her full benefits. Against this, Ciza Thomas approached the High Court.

The high court censured the government for their terrible handling of this issue and even asked them to retrospect and correct their stooping low treatment meted out to retiring government employees.

Politicians locking horns and using different means to settle scores is a different game. The same cannot be justified if the government is using all their means to torment a government official. Those leading the government and the higher education department should be vigilant not to show such narrow-minded stances in the future.