HC quashes retirement order of 7 disabled employees, directs corporation to reinstate all | Hyderabad News – Times of India

Hyderabad: Terming the age determination method adopted to retire seven disabled employees as unfair, the Telangana high court has quashed their retirement orders and directed the Andhra Pradesh Vikalangula Cooperative Corporation(APVCC) to reinstate them with full back wages and all consequential benefits.Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka gave the direction while hearing a petition from Cirikonda Mallesh and six others from Hyderabad who joined the corporation between 1988 and 1990.They were retired in Aug 2012 based on an age determination process carried out by the department of forensic medicine, Osmania General Hospital. Six of them are blind and one has a physical disability.The employees had challenged the retirement on the grounds that the forensic assessment lacked radiological tests and was conducted without prior notice or opportunity to respond, despite their service records containing verified dates of birth accepted for over two decades.Their counsel, Ram Naresh Kumar, argued that the retirement order violated fundamental procedural safeguards and deprived them of their only livelihood.The state counsel, defending the corporation’s action, alleged the petitioners were irregular appointees from the late 1980s and their service records were based only on affidavits or a medical certificate. He said the corporation had conducted age verification through a medical board, which found them to have reached superannuation age.However, the court held that such unilateral reliance on medical reports after 25 years of service was unsustainable, especially in the absence of corroborative evidence or a personal hearing. “Once the employer has accepted the date of birth and acted upon it for decades, any attempt to alter it must strictly comply with procedural safeguards,” Justice Bheemapaka said while noting the lack of show-cause notices or a fair opportunity to question the medical findings, which were not even proven to have followed scientific procedures.The court concluded that the retirement order was arbitrary and directed immediate reinstatement of the petitioners with continuity of service, full back wages and pension benefits.