Retirement age disparity & service condition of armed forces need revisit, says SC | India News
New Delhi: At a time when the government is trying to shake off the country’s colonial vestiges, the Supreme Court on Friday asked it to set up an expert panel to review the British-era fixed retirement age and service conditions of armed forces personnel, including the Coast Guard.A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Jayamalya Bagchi passed the order on an appeal filed by the government challenging the Delhi High Court’s order striking down Rules 20(1) and 20(2) of the Coast Guard (General) Rules, 1986, which said that commandant and officers below the rank shall retire on retirement of commandant beyond 5 years. 60 years.Appearing for the government, Additional Solicitor General Archana Pathak Dave said the High Court erred in comparing the Coast Guard, which comes under the Ministry of Defence, with central armed police forces like the ITBP, CRPF, CISF, and Shastra Seema Bal. He said the work of Coast Guard personnel is completely different from CAPF personnel and they come under different ministries.While the bench stayed the operation of the High Court’s order, thus reviving different retirement ages for the two cadres of Coast Guard officers, it said, “Time has come to review these regulations governing conditions of service and retirement age.In its order, the CJI-led bench said, “The operation of the impugned order shall remain suspended. However, the government will constitute a committee of domain experts to review the service conditions including retirement age and submit a report to the court.”On November 24 last year, a division bench of the Delhi High Court, Justice C Hari Shankar And Om Prakash Shukla struck down two provisions of Rule 20 and said, “We are of the view that the superannuation age of 60 years shall apply to officers of the Coast Guard in all ranks.”This judgment was inspired by an earlier decision of the High Court ‘Dev Sharma v. Indo-Tibetan Border Police case, where the difference in age of retirement of Commandant and above officers was deleted. SC has upheld the judgment of Dev Sharma of the High Court.
