The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Haryana government to reply by December 8, why it should not stay the State government’s decision to lower the retirement age of its staff to 58 years from 60 years.
Hearing a petition challenging the government’s decision, Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa asked the Haryana government to furnish its reply.
The petitioner had claimed that the decision taken by the Manohar Lal Khattar government to reduce the retirement age by two years ran contrary to and had sought to reverse the decision of the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government which had actually increased the retirement by two years to 60.
It has been contended that the decision would put an additional burden of Rs. 200 crores on the exchequer besides impacting the future of nearly 5,000 of the 3 lakh employees.
The Haryana government had on November 26 announced that age of superannuation of all its employees, except judicial officers, would be reduced from 60 years to 58 years.
The State government has also reduced the age of superannuation for blind and physically disabled or challenged employees from 62 years to 60 years with immediate effect.
It had also decided that the employees who had reached the superannuation age, but could not be retired till date due to the enhanced superannuation age, will now be retired on November 30, 2014. This decision was to be applicable on all departments, boards, corporations and universities. Sources said about 4,000 employees on extension would also have been affected by this.
