SC: Respond to Army docs’ retirement plea

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 29

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to respond by Monday to Army doctors’ plea for enhancing their retirement age to 65 under the recent policy announced by the Centre.

A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and UU Lalit issued notice to the Centre on a PIL by some of the doctors of the Army Medical Corps and Army Dental Corps pleading for parity with civilian medicos in the retirement age at 65.

A copy of the petition should be handed over to the government during the day to enable it to respond by August 1, the next date for hearing, the court clarified.

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Arguing for the petitioners, advocate Indira Sen Singh said his clients would be superannuating in two days and as such, the Bench should restrain the government from retiring them, pending disposal of their petition. “Don’t worry on this,” the Bench told the petitioners, Amitabh Thapliyal and others, without passing any restraint order.

The petitioners from the Army Medical Corps (AMC) pleaded that the Centre had enhanced the retirement age of non-teaching civilian doctors to 65 years, but the Defence Ministry was not extending the benefit to the Army where doctors retired at 60 or 62, depending upon their rank.

However, other government wings such as paramilitary forces had decided to follow the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) decision to retire doctors at 65 years of age from May 31 this year.

If the Army was not willing to retain them, they should be transferred to other departments facing shortage of doctors so that they could continue to serve till 65, they pleaded. The Centre’s move to increase the retirement age has come at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using the services of experienced doctors to benefit the poor.