Nisha Ghosal
The SC issued a notice to the Kerala Government on a plea seeking to raise the age of retirement from 56 to 60 for all government employees.
A bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud issued a notice in the Special Leave Petition, which challenged the amendments brought to the Kerala Services Rules to increase the age of retirement from 56 to 60 years for all government servants who joined service post 01.04.2013 in Kerala.
The petitioners, i.e., Saju Nambadan and K T Moosa, asked for the extension of the retirement age even for those government servants who joined before 01. 04. 2013.
Concerning the above case, the petitioner’s counsel, Adv K. Rajeev, pointed out that the amendments made to the Kerala Service Rules were discriminatory with the employees who were appointed before 01.04.2013 as the benefit of retirement age was not granted to them.
The counsel for the petitioner also submitted that the age of retirement for all central employees was fixed at 60.
Justice Chandrachud replied, “So, you want the best of both worlds – statutory pension and retirement age at 60?”
The petitioner had initially raised this issue before the Kerala Administrative Tribunal but was dismissed.
They later approached the Kerala High Court. But, the High Court of Kerala had also dismissed the petition.