Delhi High Court sets aside order directing Indian Express to raise retirement age from 58 to 60

In a major relief to The Indian Express group, the Delhi High Court recently set aside an order of the industrial tribunal raising the retirement age of its employees from 58 years to 60 years with effect from the year 2009 [The Indian Express P Ltd v The Indian Express Newspapers Workers Union Regd and Anr]..Justice Anish Dayal held that increasing the retirement age across all cadres of employees in a large establishment involves a very high economic impact.Such a move requires a threadbare analysis involving a comprehensive assessment of various parameters, the Court said. The High Court concluded that the tribunal had considered “irrelevant materials, ignored or did not requisition relevant materials" and that the tribunal had "made an irrational, fragile, perfunctory and cursory assessment in order to reach its conclusion.”“Clearly, this necessitates interference in the supervisory and extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court. The Industrial Tribunal ignored all the established parameters for revising the service conditions/ wages of an establishment, as is noted above,” the Court said.It, therefore, set aside the order and asked the tribunal to consider the matter afresh.“Accordingly, the impugned order is set aside and the matter is remanded back to the Industrial Tribunal for fresh adjudication after considering all materials which may be placed by the parties in detail to be examined with a fresh nuanced outlook and robust reasoning, taking into account decisions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and this Court, as noted above, and as may be presented by the parties,” Justice Dayal ordered..Indian Express approached the High Court challenging an industrial tribunal order dated July 31, 2023 to increase the age of retirement or superannuation age of the media outlet's workers to 60 years with effect from October 15, 2009, with all consequential benefits, monetary or otherwise.The tribunal further directed the Express Group to implement the order within sixty days of passing of the award, failing which they would be liable to pay interest at the rate of 8 percent per annum from the date of accrual till the date of final payment. .After considering the case, the High Court held that the industrial tribunal could not have arrived at a finding that the retirement age ought to be increased merely on extremely slim and lightweight reasons.Justice Dayal also ruled against the tribunal's decision to compare the situation of Express workers with workers in other organisations.“The Industrial Tribunal has also erred in taking the option of extendibility of the retirement age from 58 to 60 years in other newspaper establishments, as a fixed retirement age of 60 years. There is a clear difference between a fixed retirement age and the option of extending the same by 2 years based on the health, performance, and other factors relating to the employee. Importantly it is noted, that existing Model Standing Order still defines the age of superannuation at 58 years. Therefore, displacing the same in its application to the establishment, necessitates proper consideration of materials, keeping in view above-mentioned observations and findings," the Court said. .The Court, therefore, set aside the award and asked the tribunal to consider the matter afresh..Advocates NB Joshi and Sahil appeared for Express Group.The workers’ union was represented through Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves and advocate Kawalpreet Kaur.Advocates Avishkar Singhvi, Vivek Kr Singh and Naved Ahmed appeared for another respondent..[Read Judgment]