Bombay HC issues notice to Centre on curbs on writing, publishing imposed on retired personnel of defence, intel organisations

Mumbai, April 19

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Union government and sought its reply to a plea challenging the 2021 amendment to the pension rules for civil servants.

This amendment imposes new restrictions, including a prohibition on writing or publishing material without prior approval on retired officials of intelligence and security organisations. This condition was imposed as a substitute clause in rules on the officers’ pension subject to their future good conduct.

A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Madhav Jamdar sought the Union government’s reply while hearing a writ petition filed by former defence personnel Sandesh Singhalkar and Suresh Patil.

In their petition filed through advocates Asim Sarode and Ajinkya Udane, the petitioners argued that the restrictions on writing and publishing imposed by the government on retired officers through a notification dated May 31 last year was no less than a “gag order”.

The amendment says, among other things, that retired officers of CBI, RAW and several such security organisations cannot write or publish anything that pertains to the organisation they worked with or to their domain knowledge “without prior clearance from the head of the organisation”.

The petitioners said in their plea that the amendment was “unconstitutional” and that it breached their fundamental right to livelihood as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

They urged HC to direct the Union government to withdraw the May 31 notification.

The HC is likely to hear the plea further in June, and directed the Union government to file its reply by then.