Panjab University syndicate nod to increase faculty’s retirement age to 65
Panjab University syndicate approves proposal for fresh amendments in retirement age of faculty members on its campus and at non-government affiliated colleges as per UGC recommendations
The Panjab University (PU) syndicate on Saturday approved the fresh amendments in regulations to enhance the retirement age of faculty members on its campus and at non-government affiliated colleges, as recommended by its regulations committee recently.
This is the second time that the varsity is attempting to amend its calendar to enhance the retirement age of teachers. PU has proposed that the retirement age be as per the regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) — which is 65 years — as opposed to 60 at the varsity.
A syndicate member, requesting anonymity, said, “As per procedure, the recommendations of the regulation committee will be forwarded to the senate before being returned to the regulations committee for finalisation. Thereafter, the matter will again come up before the syndicate and senate for final approval, and will then be sent to the central government.”
In 2007, the UGC had come out with a recommendation to increase the retirement age at central universities to 65. Taking note of this, the PU senate and syndicate had passed a proposal in 2011, but the approval from the central government is pending.
The fresh amendments have been proposed following the Union ministry of home affairs’ March 2022 notification, implementing central service rules for employees of the Chandigarh administration.
Since then, the retirement age at city’s government colleges has increased to 65 years, also matched by Punjab Engineering College (PEC). But the benefit has not been extended to the university due to its inter-state body corporate status.
The retirement age of teachers at the seven aided colleges in Chandigarh is also 60 years, as per PU regulations. After the recent protests by the staff of these colleges, the UT administration had said it cannot enhance the teachers’ retirement age to 65 years unless the requisite amendments are made in PU’s regulations.
What are the amendments
Instead of the retirement age of 60 years, the regulation committee has proposed Regulation 17.3 under Chapter VI (A) of PU Calendar Volume-I 2022, as “All whole-time members of teaching staff, as defined in regulation 1.1 of chapter V(A), shall retire at the age mentioned in the regulations of University Grants Commission (UGC)/regulating body of HEIs.”
A similar amendment has been proposed in Regulation 7 under Chapter VIII (E) of PU Calendar Volume-I 2022, that deals with the retirement age of teachers at non-government affiliated colleges of PU.
However, in the earlier amendments approved by the varsity, the university had proposed the retirement age of 65 years (instead of writing UGC regulations) and a five-year term for vice-chancellor (V-C).
Issue pending before HC
After the 2011 proposal for retirement age enhancement, PU teachers had also approached the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) with the same plea in 2014.
The plea was dismissed by a single-judge bench on August 16, 2016, after the central government told the court that PU was not a central university.
However, through an interim order in September 2016, a division bench stayed the single-judge order and allowed teachers to work up to 65 years. But the interim order was vacated by a division bench in September 2022.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court later stayed the September 2022 order and the matter is still pending before HC.
Notably, in the past Punjab government, through a written submission to the high court, had opposed the PU faculty’s demand of increasing the retirement age to 65. Being an inter-state body corporate, PU is funded by both Centre and Punjab, but around 90% grant comes from the Centre alone.
