Court grants interim stay on retirement of 5 teachers

Court grants interim stay on retirement of 5 teachers

TNN | May 29, 2020, 04.37 AM IST

Madurai: Madras high court has granted interim relief to five government school teachers by directing the state government not to relieve them from service while hearing their pleas seeking the benefit of the state government’s GO which had raised the retirement age from 58 to 59 years. Petitioner T Jeyamangalam, PG assistant at the government higher secondary school at Allinagaram in Sivaganga district, said she was due to retire on April 30 on reaching superannuation. However, she was granted re-employment till May 31 which was approved by chief educational officer.

She stated that on account of Covid-19, government servants were not allowed to retire and their pension proposals were not even forwarded. It was in this backdrop that the government in a GO on May 7 increased the retirement age of government servants from 58 to 59 years and made it applicable to all government servants due to retire on May 31.

The government later clarified that the GO is not applicable to government servants who had attained superannuation at 58 years on or before May 1. She stated that benefits granted to teachers who retire on May 31 cannot be denied to those who retired on April 30. The government’s decision would amount to violation of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution. A similar plea was moved by four other teachers. When the petitions were heard on Thursday, Justice J Nisha Banu directed the state government to file a counter and adjourned the case to June 3 till when the 5 petitioners are not to be relieved from service.