Madras University approves partial withdrawal of funds

The Syndicate of University of Madras on Wednesday approved the partial withdrawal of its corpus fund for the payment of pension arrears to retired employees, amid objections from teaching and non-teaching staff associations.

The University owes 339 retirees a total sum of ₹95.44 crore as arrears towards pension, family pension, Death-cum-Retirement Gratuity (DCRG), commutation, and leave encashment.

The move was necessitated after the Madras High Court, responding to a contempt petition, ordered the Finance Secretary to appear in person and explain steps being taken by the government to clear the arrears.

At a hurriedly called special meeting, the Syndicate resolved to withdraw two of its deposits under the corpus fund that matured in the past week amounting to a total of ₹45.6 crore. In addition, the State government has chipped in with a block grant of ₹20 crores to meet the contingency.

Rita John, Registrar, University of Madras, said that the government had communicated that it was willing to compensate the university with additionality grant for the loss of interest due to the withdrawal. The University has a total corpus fund of ₹318 crores.

The University had, last week, settled the pension arrears and family pension arrears of 184 retirees amounting to ₹6.32 crore from its non-plan general fund. Prof. Rita said that the DCRG and the leave encashment components, totally amounting to ₹50.8 crore, will be paid off from the corpus withdrawals and the government grant.

The commutation component, which amounts to ₹38.31 crore, will have to be reviewed individually and would be left to the discretion of the retired employees, she added. The Syndicate resolved to authorise the Vice-Chancellor Convener Committee to utilise funds from subsequent maturity of deposits.

The Syndicate also resolved to constitute a committee for revenue augmentation to explore possibilities of raising funds to strengthen the corpus.

Between April 2015 and September 2025, 87 teaching staff, 249 non-teaching staff, and 129 family pensioners were owed terminal benefits by the university. The proposal had met with stiff opposition from the university faculty and non-teaching staff associations who said that the move to withdraw a part of the corpus would leave the university financially thin, jeopardising the benefits payable to future retirees.

The delay in disbursement of terminal benefits was attributed to audit objections raised over the years. Following successive court directives in August 2025, the financial particulars and service registers of the pensioners were forwarded to the Directorate of Audit General, Nandanam. As many as 339 service registers were verified and cleared for payment.