After Bombay HC Nudge, Dr. Ambedkar's MSc Thesis To Be Published

A division bench of Justices Prasanna Varale and Kishore Sant was hearing a suo moto PIL taking cognizance of government's earlier decision to halt a project for preservation and publication of Ambedkar's works.

On Thursday, the state informed that court that the UK Senate library has granted permission to the state to publish his thesis titled 'Decentralisation of Provincial Imperial Finance in British India'.

"We also appreciate the unanimous decision taken by the committee to publish this as Volume 23", the court said in its order.

AGP Purnima Kantharia for the state submitted the minutes of the meeting conducted by the committee constituted to oversee the project. It was chaired by Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil. The Principal Secretary of the department, as well as Member Secretary and members of the committee were present in the meeting.

According to the minutes, the honorarium to the member secretary of the committee has been increased from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 25,000. The committee didn't consider the issue of honorarium to the other members.

"…if the committee took a decision insofar as member secretary, it can certainly take a decision to provide honorarium to other members", the court said and added that the committee should consider this issue in the next meeting.

Earlier, the court had criticized the paltry remuneration and insufficient support staff given to the committee.

According to the minutes, the Minister directed the Public Works Department to provide its guest house or any available vacant flat in Tushar Building for the accommodation of the Member Secretary of the committee. Further the travel expenses for the member secretary was also mentioned.

Advocate Swaraj Jadhav, prosecuting the PIL on the High Court's behalf said that the provision for accommodation and travel expenses cannot be reserved for the Member Secretary alone as the members travel from various parts of the state for the meetings.

Kantharia informed the court that the state will bear the travel expenses of the members of the committee from their place of accommodation to place of meeting. Further, while visiting Mumbai for meetings, the member can also avail the accommodation given to the Member Secretary

It was informed that the manpower and material required for research and digitization of the works will be outsourced as per requirement. .

According to the minutes of the meeting, a proposal has been submitted to the University of Mumbai for provision sufficient space for the working of the committee.

The court directed the committee to conduct its next meeting within 6 weeks and adjourned the case.

Case no. – SMP/1/2021

Case title – High Court on its own Motion v. State of Maharashtra