No decision yet on ‘excess’ salary paid to ‘retd’ college heads
2 min readGAYA: Raj Bhawan officials are learned to be divided on the issue of recovery of salary paid to 50-odd principals who attained 62 years of age between December 27, 2012 and May 19, 2017.
An amendment to the Bihar State Universities Act-1976 on December 27, 2012 withdrew principals from the list of teaching positions in the colleges of the state. The amended Act acknowledged only professors, associate professors and assistant professors as teachers.
The superannuation age of teaching staff is different from that of non-teaching staff in the universities of the state. Whereas the superannuation age of teachers has been fixed at 65, non teaching employees of the universities retire on attaining the age of 62.
The apparent anomaly was rectified through another amendment notified in the state gazette to include principals in the category of teachers. But as the amendment notified on May 19 this year has not been given retrospective effect, the principals who attained 62 years of age between December 2012 and May 2017 cannot be treated as teachers.
Sources say there is unanimity among Raj Bhawan officials that such principals who attained 62 years of age between December 27, 2012 and May 19, 2017 are deemed to have retired at the age of 62. However, they differ on the issue of recovery of salary paid to such principals after their deemed retirement age.
While a section of officials are of the view that the salary paid to such principals after their deemed retirement should be recovered as per the provisions of the Public Demand Recovery Act, the other officials feel such principals have worked during the contentious period and their work has to be monetarily compensated.
When contacted, Raj Bhawan’s PRO S K Pathak told this correspondent he did not have “official information” on the matter.
Agreeing with the second opinion that opposes recovery of salary paid to the principals, university law expert Shiv Jatan Thakur, who initially raised the demand for retirement of principals at 62 years, said it would be unlawful to recover the salary paid to the affected principals beyond 62 years of age.
Courtesy: TNN
