Unaided affiliated colleges must pay revised scales and arrears from the prescribed effective date despite financial constraints.

Respondent Nos. 3–14, teaching staff at the petitioners’ unaided engineering college, sought implementation of the AICTE’s Seventh Pay Commission scales from 1 January 2016, payment of arrears, and copies of their service books.

The University of Mumbai’s Grievance Redressal Committee allowed their grievances and directed the petitioners to implement the revised scales and pay arrears within nine months.

The college challenged that order under Article 227, arguing that declining admissions and financial constraints made retrospective implementation onerous; it also contended that arrears should be limited to three years before the grievances were filed.

The petitioners had, however, implemented the revised scales from January 2025.

1. Whether the college’s asserted financial difficulties justified deferring implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission scales beyond 1 January 2016.

2. Whether the employees’ arrears could be restricted to the three years preceding their grievances.

The Court relied on the AICTE notification dated 1 March 2019 and the Maharashtra Government Resolutions dated 8 March 2019 and 11 September 2019, under which the revised pay scales applied to teachers in affiliated colleges from 1 January 2016.

Under Secretary, Mahatma Gandhi Mission v. Bhartiya Kamgar Sena, unaided institutions must meet the salary obligations arising from applicable revised pay scales and must find ways to discharge that liability; financial difficulty does not excuse non-payment.

Frank Anthony Public School Employees’ Association v. Union of India rejects the prospect of institutional closure as a sufficient answer to employees’ claims for revised pay.

The cited Bombay High Court decisions, including Dr. Suryaprakash Dhaneria v. State of Maharashtra and Barun Kumar s/o Manmohan Choudhary v. State of Maharashtra, establish that delay in pursuing a claim does not legalise an employer’s non-compliance and that arrears are not automatically confined to the three years before proceedings where employees diligently pursued their entitlement.

The grievances were considered by the Committee constituted under Section 79 of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016.

The employees’ entitlement to the revised scales was undisputed, and the governing notifications fixed implementation from 1 January 2016.

The college’s lack of grant-in-aid and financial constraints did not displace its obligation to pay, particularly as it had begun implementing the revised scales in 2025.

Nor could the arrears be curtailed to three years: the employees had pursued their claims through representations and grievances, and the Court found them diligent.

Applying the cited precedents, the Court held that the Committee’s direction was consistent with the governing law.

It held that the financial constraints did not justify postponing the revised pay scales from their effective date, and that the employees were not barred from claiming arrears for the full period of entitlement on the facts of this case.

The writ petition was dismissed, the Rule discharged, and no costs were awarded.