KRISHAN GOPAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In both the petitions, the petitioners are the employees of Jawaharlal Nehru University working as Deputy Librarian and Directors of Physical Education (DPE). They are seeking a declaration that their status be treated as that of a teacher and, therefore, the Notification dated 31.12.2008 vide which retirement age of teachers is fixed at 65 years should be made applicable to them also. Since this Notification specifically excludes library staff as well as staff of physical education, prayers are also made for declaring the exclusionary part of the Notification as unconstitutional.

(2.) Vide impugned Notification dated 31.12.2008, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of Higher Education), Government of India has decided to revise the pay scales and other service conditions of the teachers in Central Universities. Since we are not concerned with revision of pay scale or other service conditions but the limited scope of these writ petitions is confined to the re-fixation of the age of superannuation for teachers, we hereby reproduce that part of the Notification:

(3.) A reading of the aforesaid extracted portion of the Notification would clearly demonstrate that the age of superannuation for teachers in the Central educational institutions has been increased vide Notification dated 23.3.2007 for those involved in class room teaching . Rationale given is that the same is done in order to attract eligible persons to the teaching careers and to retain teachers in service for a longer period . Further rationale stated in sub-para (3) is that this enhancement in the age of superannuation for teachers engaged in class room teaching is intended to attract eligible persons to a career in teaching and to meet the shortage of teachers by retaining teachers in service for a longer period. This very sub-para unambiguously and in no uncertain terms, specifically excludes the categories of librarians and DPEs. It is also mentioned in respect of these librarians and DPEs that their present age of superannuation, namely, 62 years would remain and no increase is permissible in these two categories.