Agricultural University (JNKVV) has suffered a major setback from the Madhya Pradesh High Court. A division bench of the High Court has dismissed all four of the university's appeals regarding the pending salary payments to retired employees. The court upheld the previous order to pay employees their outstanding salaries for the period between retirement and re-entry, along with 6 percent annual interest. This decision was delivered on October 26, 2026. The case concerns employees working under the university's work-charged establishment.

 

The retirement age for these employees was 60 years. Later, a decision was made to increase the retirement age to 62 years. The university's Board of Management approved this on December 22, 2021. Subsequently, on April 21, 2022, the university issued an order re-employing some employees who had not reached the prescribed age limit. However, the order stipulated that salary and other benefits would not be paid for the period between retirement and re-employment. The employees challenged the withholding of their pending salaries in the High Court. They argued that they had not voluntarily left their jobs, but rather that the university had retired them at the age of 60. A single bench of the High Court ruled in favor of the employees and ordered the payment of their pending salaries along with 6 percent interest. The university filed four appeals challenging this order in the division bench.

 

The 'no work, no pay' argument did not work. The university argued that the employees did not work during the relevant period and should not be paid for that period. The employees, meanwhile, argued that the university itself had terminated them. A division bench of Justice Vivek Rushia and Justice Pradeep Mittal found that the Board of Management's decision did not set a cut-off date for excluding already retired employees from the benefits. The subsequent addition of the condition of withholding arrears of pay through an order was not justified. The High Court dismissed all four appeals filed by the university in the cases of employees, including Sudhir Thakur, J.K. Vishwakarma, Umesh Kumar Srivastava, and R.K. Tiwari. This allows the previous order to pay the employees arrears of pay with 6% annual interest to remain in effect.