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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
S. MURALIDHAR, SANJEEV NARULA, JJ.
Dev Sharma & Ors. - Petitioner
Versus
Indo Tibetan Border Police & Anr. - Respondents
W.P.(C) 1951 of 2012, 389, 480, 1119, 3478, 4859, 6771, 8076 of 2013, 3524 of 2014, 6092, 7204, 11227, 11228, 11233 of 2015, 5222, 8336 of 2016, 12593, 12691,12692 of 2018
Decided On : 31-01-2019
Central Reserve Police Force Rules, 1955 - Rule 43 (a) - CRPF Group (A) General Duty Officers Recruitment Rules, 2001 - Rule 14 - Age of retirement - Separate rules - Violation of - Separate rules applicable to each of the three CAPFs in question - Officers holding post higher than the rank of Commandants shall retire from service "on the afternoon of the day of the month in which they attained the age of 60 years - Officers of other ranks shall retire from the service on the afternoon of the last day of the month in which they attained the age of 57 years - Rule 43 (a) of the CRPF Rules, 1955 as it presently stands is unconstitutional and liable to be struck down - Rule 14 of the CRPF Group (A) General Duty Officers Recruitment Rules, 2001, Rule 8 (a) of the ITBP General Duty in Group "A" Posts Rules and Rule 12 of the BSF (General Duty Officers) Recruitment Rules, 2001 to that extent are also held to be unconstitutional and struck down - Power to issue consequential directions - Scope of - A constitutional Court may adopt in order to avoid striking down a statutory provision as unconstitutional is to "read it down" in a manner that removes the element of discrimination or arbitrariness.
Indo-Tibetan Border Police Act, 1992 - Section 153 (4), 156 (2), 157 (2) - Age of retirement - members of Central and Allied Police Forces - Rank of Commandant - Fixed at 57 years - Prayer for enhancement up to 60 years - Discrimination amongst the CAPFs - Retirement age of all members of the CISF and AR is 60 years - Whereas the retirement age of those of the rank of Commandant and below in BSF, CRPF, SSB and ITBP is 57 years - Classification has no rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved - Discrimination in the matter of the age of retirement amongst members of two wings of the CAPFs will contribute to lowering the morale rather than bolstering it - It is held that Rule 43 (a) of the CRPF Rules which presently states that "Retirement of member of the Force shall take effect from the afternoon of the last day of the month in which such member attains the age of 57 years" is held to be discriminatory - OM issued by the MHA rejecting the plea of the Petitioners is hereby quashed.
S. MURALIDHAR, J.
1. The present batch of petitions concerns the age of retirement of members of three of the Central and Allied Police Forces (CAPFs) up to the rank of Commandant which is at present fixed at 57 years. The prayer in the present petitions is that the retirement age should be enhanced to 60 years to be at par with the officers above the rank of Commandant. The three CAPFs in question are the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (‘ITBP’), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF).
2. There are 19 petitions in the present batch. 8 petitions pertain to members of the CRPF, 10 to members of the ITBP and 1 in the BSF. The details of the retirement of each of them both in terms of their present age of retirement i.e. 57 years and if it were at 60 years is presented in a tabular form as under:
S. No.
WP No.
Name of Petitioner
Date of Retirement (at 57 years)
Date of Retirement (if 60 years)
1.
1951/2012
Dev Sharma (ITBP)
31.07.2011
31.07.2014
2.
389/2013
1. Ranbir Singh (ITBP)
2. Rattan Chand (ITBP)
31.01.2013
31.01.2013
31.01.2016
31.01.2016
3.
480/2013
Ranjit Singh Dalpatia (ITBP)
30.01.2013
30.01.2016
4.
1119/2013
Sunil Kumar (ITBP)
28.02.2013
28.02.2016
5.
3478/2013
Raghuvir Singh Raghave (CRPF)
31.05.2013
31.05.2016
6.
4859/2013
1. Rajendra Prasad (CRPF)
2. S.C. Chandel (CRPF)
3. Mohinder Singh (CRPF)
4. R.K. Sharma (CRPF)
5. Rabindra Pathak (CRPF)
6. U.S. Mishra (CRPF)
7. Ratan Kumar Dey (CRPF)
8. Devender Sing Panwar (CRPF)
9. Raj Kumar (CRPF)
10. S.S. Kathuria (CRPF)
31.05.2015
31.05.2018
28.02.2015
30.04.2014
31.10.2014
31.02.2014
28.02.2014
31.05.2016
31.07.2019
31.10.2014
31.05.2018
31.05.2021
28.02.2018
30.04.2017
31.10.2017
31.02.2017
28.02.2017
31.05.2019
31.07.2022
31.10.2017
7.
6771/2013
Yash Pal Singh (ITBP)
1.10.2013
31.10.2016
8.
8076/2013
Ramesh Chand Rana (ITBP)
31.12.2013
31.12.2016
9.
3524/2014
Bhupinder Kumar Malik (ITBP)
31.05.2014
31.05.2017
10.
6092/2015
BS Martolia (ITBP)
30.06.2015
30.06.2018
11.
7204/2015
Dinesh Chandra Sharma (ITBP)
31.07.2015
31.07.2018
12.
11227/2015
Trilooki Nath Pandita (CRPF)
31.12.2015
31.12.2018
13.
11228/2015
Mohan Singh Chilwal (CRPF)
31.12.2015
31.12.2015
14.
11233/2015
Ram Byas Rai (CRPF)
31.12.2015
31.12.2018
15.
5222/2016
Nandan Singh Bisht (ITBP)
31.05.2016
31.05.2019
16.
8336/2016
Jai Bhagwan (CRPF)
30.09.2016
30.09.2019
17.
12593/2018
N. Ramakutty (CRPF)
30.11.2018
30.11.2021
18.
12691/2018
Tilak Ram (CRPF)
30.11.2018
30.11.2021
19.
12692/2018
BL Naik (BSF)
31.12.2018
31.12.2021
3. The main prayer in each of these petitions is the same, viz., for a mandamus to the Respondents to consider enhancing the age of superannuation of each of the Petitioners to 60 years. The Petitioners are not of the same rank although each of them is of the rank of Commandant and below. In terms of their present retirement age, each of them (barring Petitioner No.9 in 4859/2013) has already retired. Further, some of them have even crossed 60 years as of date. Nevertheless, since the Petitioners have raised an important question and it affects a larger number of persons similarly situated, who are still serving, the Court considers it appropriate to d
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