The Hindu : Compulsory retirement of engineer upheld

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 18, 2002

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Compulsory retirement of engineer upheld

By T. Padmanabha Rao

NEW DELHI MARCH 17. The entire ``service record'' or ``confidential report'' with emphasis on the later entries in the character roll can be taken into account by the Government while considering a case for compulsory retirement of a (given) Government servant under relevant provision of the Fundamental Rule (FR) 56, the Supreme Court has reiterated.

Though an order of "compulsory retirement" of a given Government servant "is passed on the `subjective satisfaction' of the Government on following the opinion that it is in the public interest to retire a Government servant compulsorily, the High Court or the Apex Court may interfere if they are satisfied that the order is passed (a) mala fide or (b) that it is based on no evidence or (c) that it is arbitrary — in the sense that no reasonable person would form the `requisite opinion' on the given material; in short, if it is found to be a perverse order,'' the Bench said citing an earlier ruling in Baikuthanath case (1992).

Delivering the judgment, V.N. Khare, on the facts and circumstances, upheld an order dated February 22, 1999 of the U.P. Government "compulsorily retiring'' an executive engineer (respondent) from service on the basis of a `recommendation' made by a `screening committee' — which took into account, the `service record' and `entries' in the `character roll' of the respondent for the last 10 years prior to the order of compulsory retirement.

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