The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to respond to a public interest litigation petition which sought to restrain it from extending the retirement age from 58 to 59 for government servants who were facing corruption charges.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Subbiah and Krishnan Ramasamy granted two weeks’ time for State Government Pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayan to file a counter affidavit.
The orders were passed on the PIL petition filed by advocate M. Karpagam, 26, of Chennai. Her counsel R. Prabakaran told the court that the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department issued a government order on May 7, increasing the retirement age of all State government employees from 58 to 59 with immediate effect.
The reason behind the move was to save over ₹5,000 crore to be paid towards the terminal benefits to retiring employees and instead utilise the money for the fight against COVID-19, the lawyer said and added even corrupt employees were extended the benefit. He sought an interim direction to the government to submit a list of its employees who were facing charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988 but still continue to be in service by virtue of the government order issued on May 7.
