Retirement at 65 years for teaching staff, not librarians: HC

Panaji: The Bombay high court has held that a librarian of a school must retire at 60 years and not 65 years. The high court stated that retirement at 65 years is only applicable to teaching faculty and principals and cannot be extended to librarians. Such a benefit has neither been extended to his cadre nor notified by state govt, HC stated.A librarian, who is due to retire at age 60 on Aug 31, went to the HC stating that the polytechnic college where he works is compelling him to retire at 60, which is unsuitable in law. He said that he is an academic staff member under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) framework and cannot be excluded from benefits from the regulations. He argued that govt lacks authority to selectively apply regulations to a preferred class of employees.The HC held that a govt-aided polytechnic college is governed by service conditions notified by state govt. It added that the AICTE Regulations 2019, which prescribe the age of superannuation at 65, are confined to members of teaching staff and principals and cannot be extended to librarians.The HC found merit in the additional govt advocate S Samant’s submission that his initial service condition at the time of his appointment in 1991 stipulated the age of retirement as 58, which was subsequently raised to 60 years in line with the policy applicable to govt-aided institutions. He cannot claim as a matter of right an extension of service up to 65 years.The court held that he has, throughout his service career, availed benefits under service rules applicable to non-teaching staff and has never been treated at par with teaching faculty in terms of cadre, pay scale, or promotional avenues.