Chandigarh, March 24
The Chandigarh Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has ordered that the teachers who stood relieved in terms of the Punjab Rules on attaining the age of superannuation shall be given an option to rejoin and if they opt to come back, it will be subject to seniority and availability of vacancies, and refund of retirement dues already taken by them from the respondents.
The Bench also clarified that they would get notional benefits from the date of relieving. On rejoining, no arrears of pay and allowances would be paid for the period, it added.
CAT gave the direction while allowing the applications filed by teachers of various government colleges seeking extension of retirement age from 58 years to 65 years. Many teachers had approached CAT for the extension of the retirement age citing the judgment passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard.
Further, the Bench comprising Rashmi Saxena Sahni, Member (Administrative), and Ramesh Singh Thakur, Member (Judicial), has directed the Education Secretary to ensure that a uniform system was adopted by all colleges in case of retired employees within a period of six weeks from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.
