Madras High Court bats for uniform retirement age for all Coast Guard officers; orders Centre to reexamine issue

The Madras High Court recently directed the Central government to consider increasing the age of retirement for all officers of the Indian Coast Guard to 60 years..A bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy also set aside an order passed by the Ministry of Defence on July 21, 2020 by which the latter had refused to enhance the age of retirement for Coast Guard officers up to the rank of a Commandant from 57 to 60 to bring it at par with senior Coast Guard officers..The bench directed the government to take a re-look at the Coast Guard (General) Rules that mandates that officers holding a rank higher than that of a Commandant shall retire from service at the age of 60, while all officers of other ranks shall retire at 57 years of age..It said it was incumbent upon the Central government to consider whether the Delhi High Court judgement in the case of Dev Sharma v Indo Tibetian Border Police on parity in the age of retirement for defence and paramilitary officers was applicable and thus, needed to be implemented for the Coast Guard as well.."The impugned order does not address as to whether the rank and profile of the other CAPFs covered in the Delhi High Court Judgment are identically situated or not. It would be clear from the earlier order of this Court that it was incumbent upon the respondent to consider the same. It can be seen from the impugned order that nothing has been considered in respect of the similarity or otherwise of the other CAPFs and the implementation in respect of the common age pursuant to the judgment of the Delhi High Court in Dev Sharma," the High court said..The Court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by some officers of the Indian Coast Guard challenging the Constitutional Validity of Rule 20(1) of the Indian Coast Guard Rules 1986 and the July 2020 order passed by the Ministry of Defence.The petitioners said that the current policy of the Coast Guard prescribing different age of superannuation for officers holding different ranks was discriminatory and unconstitutional since it created two classes among the officers..However, the Central government denied that the current policy was discriminatory. It further said that the Delhi High Court judgement was based on the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission which had recommended a uniform age of superannuation of 60 years to all Central and Paramilitary Forces (CAPFs). The Pay Commission had specifically excluded the Coast Guard from such recommendation at the time after noting that there had been no request from the Coast Guard regarding the enhancement of retirement age, the Central government told the High Court..But the High Court said that the Central government must examine whether the case of Coast Guard officers was similar to that of other Central Paramilitary Forces (CAPFs)covered by the Delhi High Court judgement. The Court said that the government should also examine whether having different age of retirement for different rank of Coast Guard officers was in breach of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution..The Court accordingly set aside the July 2020 order of the Defence Ministry and directed the Central government to "reconsider" the issue..Advocate Prabhu Mukunth Arun Kumar, advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan for GR Associates and advocate Kavya Silambannan from Kavya Silmbannan Associates appeared for the Coast Guard officers..Additional Solicitor General of India ARL Sundaresan, Senior Standing Counsel N Ramesh and Central government Standing Counsel M Aravind Kumar and Subbu Ranga Bharathi appeared for the Union government and the Director General of the Coast Guard..[Read Order]