Teachers to move court against lower retirement age in state
A group of teachers from Mumbai University has decided to move court against a recent state government notification that raises the retirement age for college and university teachers to 62 years.
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A group of teachers from Mumbai University has decided to move court against a recent state government notification that raises the retirement age for college and university teachers to 62 years. Faculty members said the Government Resolution (GR) is against a notification issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) which has fixed the retirement age at 65 years.
To tide over the vacancies in teachers posts (over 18,000) and principals posts (over 1,700) across Maharashtra colleges,the state had issued a notification that increased the retirement age. The state also specified that there would be strict norms like PhD and physical fitness among others for teachers to continue after 60.
According to the UGC notification issued on June 30,2010,the retirement age of teachers for all central and state universities as well as institutions funded by the UGC,will be strictly according to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) guidelines,which is 65 years. A gazette to this effect was released. Though this central regulation exists,the Maharashtra government says that retirement age (for teachers) should be 62,subject to a person being a PhD. The state has no right to bring in any notification in contravention to UGC rules, said Neeraj Hatekar,professor in the Department of Economics,Mumbai University.
We plan to move court this week. The state needs to raise the retirement age to 65 years and bring out another notification to this effect. The Jharkhand High Court has already raised the retirement age of university teachers from 62 to 65 years on the lines of the resolution adopted by UGC, said Hatekar. He said the UGC notification further states that if any university fails to comply with the regulations,it could withhold grants to that university.
A senior official in the higher and technical education department,said the UGC notification is not binding on the state. The UGC can issue guidelines,but it is upto the state to adhere to it. Also,while 75 per cent of the 6 th Pay Commission amount is funded by MHRD,the rest has to be taken care by us. So we have to keep in mind the financial aspect. Also,increasing the age limit any further may reduce the scope for young candidates, said the official.
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