Nine years after Doordarshan show Balchitravani shut, HC says former staff not entitled to pension

Bombay High Court ruled that former Balchitravani staffers Ravindra Bidkar and Ramdas Shendge are not entitled to pension as they were not state government servants.

Balchitravani, an educational TV show produced by the State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), was established in 1984 and shut in 2017 due to financial unviability and technological obsolescence.

The court's decision dismissed petitions challenging a Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal order from August 11, 2023, which had rejected the staffers' pension claims.

SIET was an autonomous body, registered as a society in 1992, and was initially funded by the central government for its first five years.