No 65-year extension: Delhi High Court refuses to hike retirement age for defence ministry medical officers
Rejecting plea for hike in retirement age of GREF/BRO medical officers, The Delhi High Court noted that it must be assumed that state would have weighed all the pros and cons before denying the grant of extension.
The Delhi High Court was dealing with a plea regarding the enhancement of retirement age of medical officers in GREF and BRO. (AI-generate Image) Delhi High Court news: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea seeking to enhance the retirement age of medical officers in the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) from 60 to 65 years.
A bench of Justices V Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora was hearing a plea of Dr R D Thakur, a civilian medical officer within the BRO, seeking a mandamus to bring the superannuation age of GREF/BRO doctors in line with other central government medical cadres, which is 65 years.
The bench said that it would not be a ground for the court to tread into matters of policy.
“It is a well-settled position of law that the age of retirement is purely a policy matter which lies within the domain of the executive, and it is not for the Courts to prescribe a different age of retirement from one applicable to government employees under relevant rules and regulations,” the court said on May 4.
Court’s findings
- The respondents have given reasons for not enhancing the age of retirement to 65 years, though such reasons have been contested by Mr. Chhibber; it is not for this court to go into the merits, as the same are not ex facie arbitrary/perverse.
- There is some basis for the respondents to invoke the above reasons to deny the enhancement of retirement age.
- Any direction to increase the retirement age despite the reasons shall be contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court in several judgments.
- It is upon the executive to take a call as to whether the circumstances demand that a decision be taken to extend the age of superannuation in respect of a set of employees or not.
- It must be assumed that they would have weighed all the pros and cons before denying the grant of extension of age. It would not be a ground for the court to tread into matters of policy.
Case of enhancement in retirement age
The petition filed by Dr R D Thakur, a civilian medical officer within the BRO, sought a mandamus to bring the superannuation age of GREF/BRO doctors in line with other central government medical cadres.
According to the petitioner, there was no reason/justification to exclude Doctors/Medical Officers working in GREF/BRO in the memoranda dated November 30, 2022, and December 1, 2022, where the retirement age of doctors working in other organisations, including Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) was increased to 65 years.
On February 11, 2023, the petitioner submitted an application requesting the enhancement of the superannuation age of Doctors/Medical Officers in GREF/BRO to 65 years.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Ankur Chhibber submitted that the age of superannuation of Medical Officers in CAPF is 65 years, and it is not open for the respondents to deny the service conditions of personnel in CAPF.
According to him, the duties of GREP/BRO are equally challenging to CAPF; as such, he cannot deny the extension of the age of superannuation to the petitioner; otherwise, the same would amount to a denial of the right to equality, as there is a complete lack of intelligible differentia. According to him, the DG BRO’s revocation of the proposal to extend the age of superannuation is untenable.
He stated that, since the respondents’ proposal was largely based on operational requirements, it is incumbent upon the respondents to show the material change that caused them to revoke the proposal.
State’s stand
The respondent state’s case was primarily that the GREF/BRO under the Ministry of Defence has a separate Medical Cadre of Medical Officers to provide medical cover to personnel engaged in the construction of strategic roads. The Medical Cadre Officers are civilian officers appointed through UPSC and governed by CCS Rules.
Representing the state, Senior Panel Counsel Nirvikar Verma submitted that GREF Officers/Personnel, including Medical Officers with Low Medical Category and with a higher age profile, cannot be posted to High Altitude Area due to departmental policy based on geographical/environmental/circumstantial/extreme weather conditions.
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