STATE OF MYSORE Vs. PADMANABHACHARYA:J K NANJAPPA:II K KESHAVA MURTHY:M S RAMACHANDRA RAO:N RAMACHANDRA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals by special leave raise common questions and will be dealt with together. We shall take the facts of one appeal (No. C. A. 237) in order to understand the questions in dispute and it will be unnecessary to refer to the facts in other cases for they are admittedly similar

(2.) Nanjappa, respondent in C. A. No. 237of 1964, was a trained teacher and was headmaster of a Government Boys' Middle School. He completed the age of 55 years on February 3, 1958 and was ordered to be retired from service from that date on the ground of supreannuation. Thereupon he filed a writ petition in the High Court of Mysore and the main contention raised on his behalf was that R. 294 (a) of the Mysore Service Regulations (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), which prescribed the age of retirement of Government servants, had been amended with respect to trained teachers from April 29, 1955, and in the case of such teachers the normal age of superannuation was fixed at 58 years instead of 55 years. Consequently, the respondent could not be retired on completion of the age of 55 years and the order by which he was retired at that age as if he was superannuated was illegal on the ground that it was against the rule applicable to trained teachers.

(3.) This contention was traversed on behalf of the State, which is the appellant before us. It was admitted that there was some change in the rule relating to superannuation. Even so it was contended that the age of superannuation in the case of trained teachers remained the same, namely 55 years and it was open to the State to retire trained teachers at the age of 55 years, though they could be retained upto the age of 58 years if they were found fit and efficient. Besides reliance was also placed on behalf of the State on a notification of the Governor issued on March 25, 1959 and it was urged that that notification issued under Art. 309 of the Constitution validated the action taken in retiring Nanjappa, and other like him, on completion of the age of 55 years. It was not disputed on behalf of the State that the sole reason for retiring Nanjappa and others like him was that they had attained the age of 55 years and that there was nothing against their fitness or efficiency to justify the order of retirement.