The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday and Tuesday dismissed batches of writ petitions filed by government teachers, who sought a direction to the State government to extend their retirement age from 58 to 59.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan dismissed the petitions filed by the teachers and directed the government to process the pension papers and pay the pensionary and retirement benefits on or before July 31 in accordance with the Pension Rules. The court observed that it was an executive decision and the court was not prepared to examine that aspect.
The State government on May 7 raised the age of superannuation of its employees from 58 to 59. According to the government order, this would apply only to those employees who were in regular service and due to retire on superannuation from May 31, 2020.
Subsequently, in a clarification on May 14, the government said the order would not apply to those who attained the age of 58 on or before May 1, and were re-employed and also for those who had already retired prior to May 2020.
The main grievance of the petitioners was that they had retired prior to May and were on re-employment till May 31, till the end of the academic year, when the State government announced the extension of retirement age. The teachers said that the same relief must be extended to them.
They said the government servants were not allowed to retire due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation and their pension proposals were not even forwarded. Their services were required as the public examinations had to be completed, they claimed.