'Compulsory Retirement Is Not Punishment': SC Clarifies Rules For Retiring Government Employees, Says It Does Not Imply Misconduct
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that an order of compulsory retirement is neither punitive nor stigmatic in character and does not cast any aspersion on the conduct of an employee, nor does it imply any finding of misconduct. Also Watch: A bench of Justices Manmohan and Shree Chandrashekhar, which upheld the Chhattisgarh government's order of compulsory retirement to five of its 14…
The Supreme Court has ruled that compulsory retirement orders for government employees do not constitute punishment or stigmatization, and do not imply misconduct. The court upheld a Chhattisgarh government decision to retire five out of 14 employees, stating that such orders rest on objective and relevant material. The court emphasized that an employee cannot challenge an order of compulsory retirement solely based on another similarly placed employee not being retired.
The court clarified that the evaluation of an employee's utility, integrity, efficiency, and overall service profile is an individualized process based on the specific employee's records. The court also noted that a positive doctrine of equality under Article 14 of the Constitution means discrimination against one employee cannot justify favoring another.
Judicial review in compulsory retirement cases only examines whether the proper criteria were followed, not whether the decision is correct. The court found that in this case, the screening committee uniformly applied the criteria to all eligible employees, and the five retirees were identified due to their below-standard performance and recent confidential reports.
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