In a relief to a senior scientist of Vidhan Chandra Agricultural University, state agricultural university in West Bengal’s Nadia district, the Calcutta High Court fixed his retirement age at 62 years.
Dismissing the university’s February 2 proposal to fix the retirement age at 60, Justice Jay Sengupta ordered senior scientist Krishna Kishore Goswami to retire at 62 and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. (ICAR) will be responsible for the financial burden of the University for his two years of service.
“The university passed a resolution on 02.02.2024 fixing the retirement age of the petitioner at 60 years. It was purely based on the said letter of ICAR dated 03.12.2023, which itself was arbitrary and violative of the legitimate expectations of the petitioner. It also exposes the glaring weakness of the university and its inability to independently decide the retirement age of the petitioner and act on the orders of ICAR,” Justice Sengupta ordered.
“…the proposal of the University is dismissed and the case is remitted back to the Executive Council of the University to decide afresh the retirement age of the petitioner at the earliest, preferably within a period of 8 years, in accordance with the above observations and law. week,” the court ordered. “…Until a decision is taken by the university in this regard, the petitioner shall be free to work in such capacity in the university if he does not attain the age of 62 years,” he added.
Welcoming the high court’s order, Goswami’s lawyer Shamim Ahmed said: “When he joined the Vidhan Chandra Agricultural University as an employee, it was agreed that his retirement age would be 62. He was supposed to retire in August 2025 but was forced to retire at the age of 60. Theo… Now he can continue his service till August 2025.