Kolkata: The Supreme Court has set aside a Calcutta High Court division bench order that upheld the West Bengal government’s decision to deny a university employee the benefit of an extended retirement age on the ground that he did not have 10 years of continuous teaching experience in a state-aided institution within West Bengal.
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra observed that the classification of employees based on whether their teaching experience was gained inside or outside West Bengal, particularly at the verge of retirement after decades of service, “lacks nexus and discernible object”.
The court noted that the February 2021 memorandum, which increased the retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years, was intended to distinguish between state-aided and private institutions, not to exclude employees with teaching experience from outside the state. It held that to insist on 10 years of teaching experience within West Bengal, especially when the employee had already served in the state for 14 years, was “arbitrary and illegal”.
The appellant had served at Cachar College, Silchar from 1991 and joined Burdwan University in 2007, later being promoted to Senior Secretary, Faculty Council for Post-Graduate Studies in Science in 2012.
After the 2021 memorandum was issued, he sought the benefit of extended retirement but was informed that he would retire at 60, as he lacked teaching experience in a state-aided university or college in West Bengal.
The high court’s single judge had ruled in the employee’s favour, but the division bench overturned that decision.
The Supreme Court, while allowing the appeal, stated that such decisions “expose themselves as parochial” when subjected to judicial scrutiny and emphasised the constitutional court’s duty to identify and set aside such measures. The court awarded the appellant costs of Rs 50,000 and held that he was entitled to the benefit of the 2021 memorandum.