Mumbai: The affairs of Pune's Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES) will now be examined by three central agencies. The Bombay High Court has ordered the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax department to investigate the society and its trustees.
The trigger is unpaid salaries. Teaching and non-teaching staff from 44 STES institutions filed close to 220 petitions over salary and terminal dues, with defaults running across almost eight years and the total exceeding ₹400 crore.
A special bench of Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Advait M. Sethna sat during the Diwali vacation because STES had broken a November 6 undertaking to disburse ₹60.65 crore to employees before the festival.
"The situation is so grave that it is difficult for the Court to remain a mute spectator," the bench observed on November 10. It also took note of the employees' financial distress and of the reported deaths by suicide of around 13 employees.
The orders bite. All bank accounts of STES have been frozen and property transfers restrained. The trustees have been told to surrender their passports and barred from leaving Pune without informing the police.
The state education department has been asked to appoint an administrator for STES technical colleges and to take over its schools or absorb the students elsewhere.
Show-cause notices under the Contempt of Courts Act have been issued to the society and its trustees, including managing trustee Maruti Navale.
The petitions pointed out that the institutions were running with full admissions and collecting regular fees from students. The court remarked that prima facie it appeared institutional funds were being diverted into other businesses.
"There is a limit to which commercialisation of education can be resorted, that too, at the cost of the innocent employees of the STES," the bench said.
It described the trustees' conduct as "an ex facie affront" on the fundamental rights guaranteed to employees under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
The matter is next listed on November 19.