Employees’ date of retirement can’t be altered close to end of service

A writ petition was filed by an employee of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), who was given premature retirement three years before he was actually due to retire, as per the certificates and documents that he had furnished at the time of appointment.

The petitioner’s date of birth in all documents was 1 November, 1961. Therefore, he was due to superannuate only on 30 November 2019, on completing the age of 58. However, the petitioner was given premature retirement without any explanation or reason in June, 2016 itself.

Therefore, the petitioner approached the Court seeking notional reinstatement and superannuation in 2019, along with all benefits.

The lawyers for the Corporation maintained that there was discrepancy in the age submitted by the petitioner and that at the time of medical examination when he was appointed, he had stated that his age was 30, which is what the Corporation had noted; and that on the basis of that his retirement was fixed for 2016.

As reported by Live Law, Justice P. Madhavi Devi observed that changing of date of birth by employer in the employee’s service records, when he is close to retirement, is not allowed.

The Court observed that the certificates and documents submitted at the time of appointment carried the date of birth as 1 November 1961, and it matched with the official records of the petitioner too. Therefore, it is not possible or permissible for anyone to change that date, and that too when the petitioner is close to retirement.

The Corporation was also ordered to pay the petitioner all the consequential benefits for the three years of service that he was forced to miss out on. After all, it was not his fault that the Corporation did not use his services.