Govt to challenge HC order on retirement age of lecturers

Karnataka Government today said it would challenge the Karnataka High Court order directing it to enhance the retirement age of university lecturers from 60 to 65 years in accordance with the UGC rules.

“We will soon file a petition seeking review of the yesterday’s high court order”, Higher Education Minister Dr V S Acharya told the press here.

“Our view is clear. Government employees retirement age is 60 for all category of employees,” he added.

On Wednesday, the High Court passed the order directing the State to enhance the retirement age of lecturers to 65 years on a batch of petitions by lecturers.

The petitioners had submitted that the UGC had enhanced the retirement age of its lecturers to 65 and since their pay scale matched that of their UGC counterparts, rules relating to retirement age should also be made applicable to them.

Dr Acharya also said the process of admission for engineering courses has been postponed to July 7 from June 27 following delay by some colleges in furnishing seat matrix to the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

In the wake of delay in holding counselling session for students to select colleges for admission in engineering courses, officials have been directed to function on Saturday and Sundays also, Dr Acharya said.

At least 30 to 35 leading colleges had failed to submit the seat matrix, he said.

In accordance with the AICTE norms, five per cent of the seats had been reserved for poor students, whose parent’s annual income does not exceed Rs 2.5 lakh, Dr Acharya said.

The students who are eligible for admission under this quota will enjoy fee exemption, he said.

The government has also decided to consider students who have studied Electronics and Statistics for admission into engineering courses. Hitherto only students who have studied physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology at PUC level were considered.