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Dr. R.S. Sohane v. The State of Madhya Pradesh

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 638Decided 7 May 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 4675-4676 of 2019
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

The appellant, a lecturer at a 100% government-aided private college in Madhya Pradesh, was retired at 62 years of age by the college management, even though Government college teachers had by then been given a higher retirement age of 65 following UGC pay-scale reforms. He challenged this before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which referred the matter to a Full Bench; the Full Bench held that a 2004 resolution extending the 65-year retirement age to private-aided college teachers was merely a "recommendation," not a binding amendment, and that the UGC's enhanced retirement age applied only to Government college teachers. Several similarly-placed teachers joined as connected appeals before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the Madhya Pradesh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, 1973 and held that the University Coordination Committee has the power to amend college service-condition Statutes on its own motion, without needing Executive Council approval for every such amendment. It found the Full Bench had wrongly treated the Coordination Committee's 2004 resolution, which placed private-aided college teachers' retirement age on par with Government teachers, as a mere non-binding recommendation, when in fact it was validly passed and gave effect to a binding amendment of the College Code. Since the State's own senior officers sit on the Coordination Committee and the resolution was validly made, the State could not resist extending the enhanced retirement age and corresponding salary benefits to teachers in aided private colleges. The Supreme Court set aside the High Court's judgments and directed Madhya Pradesh to pay salaries to teachers in aided private colleges who worked, or had worked, up to the retirement age of 65.

Lesson Learnt

When a university's governing body (the Coordination Committee here) validly amends service-condition rules on its own authority, government and college managements cannot treat that amendment as merely advisory to deny employees benefits already extended to their government-sector counterparts.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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