IIT-Madras admits to pension package ‘interpretation’ error

The Indian Institute of Madras accepted that it had paid retirees in excess of what the department of personnel and training (DoPT) had ordered, but insisted that its move was a result of its wrong “interpretation.”

The Indian Institute of Madras on Wednesday accepted that it had paid retirees in excess of what the department of personnel and training (DoPT) had ordered, but insisted that its move was a result of its wrong “interpretation.”

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“I would say that our interpretation was wrong, but there was no illegality,” IIT Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, a day after HT reported on the excess pension payments to faculty and staff who retired before 2006.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had pulled up the IIT for the excessive pension payments, and the human resource development (HRD) ministry too ordered the institute in 2011 to recover the extra money paid to pensioners, and to stop the excess payments.

The IIT did stop the excess payments, but never set up a mechanism to recover the lost money. Pensioners had approached the Madras High Court and obtained a stay order on the HRD ministry order, after which the IIT reinitiated the excess pension payments to retirees.