Udupi, July 19: The contempt petition in Akku-Leela case has been disposed by the Supreme Court after observing the action taken by the Karnataka state government on regularization of services rendered by Akku and Leela, who had served for 42 years at the Government Women Teachers’ Training Institute, Udupi for a monthly salary of Rs 15 from 1971.
Akku and Leela both joined as sweepers at the institute in 1971. Akku took over her mother position and Leela replaced her grandmother. The state government, after coming to a conclusion that it can never evade payments in such cases, had opted for an initial payment of Rs 2.11 lac during last December and Rs 3.68 lac in January 2014. The Supreme Court had asked the government to release the money immediately.
On July 4, the Supreme Court issued a final warning to comply with its order. Accordingly, the state government issued an order recently to regularise their services from the dates they joined the Institute, till the day they retired, and to pay all the pending monetary and pension benefits due to them.
Ravindranath Shanbhag, Udupi based Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) president has been fighting for their cause and has now succeeded. He said his Foundation has received 75 such cases from all over Karnataka.
