Ahmedabad: BSNL asked to pay salary to employee with disability till superannuation

Ahmedabad: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here has ordered the payment of salary to a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) employee until the date of his retirement. He was prematurely retired after he was diagnosed with a mental illness.The tribunal quashed BSNL's decision to compulsorily retire the employee from the post of junior telecom officer, holding that protections under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, override the company's service rules on premature retirement. The employee joined BSNL Ahmedabad in 1985. He was assessed with 60% disability during his service, and the company prematurely retired him in 2019 under Rule 55(A)(1)(i) of the BSNL CDA Rules, 2006. The employee approached the CAT, contending that he had been diagnosed with a mental illness while in service and was therefore protected under Section 20 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, which prohibits a govt establishment from terminating an employee who acquires a disability during service. BSNL contested the application. After hearing the case, CAT's corum, comprising Jayesh Bhairavia and Dr Hukum Singh Meena, noted that BSNL was aware of Patel's mental illness since 2007, his mental check-up and issuance of disability in 2008 and 2014. The review committee described him as "mentally unfit," and later medical documentation showed 60% permanent disability related to his brain. The tribunal said that once it was established that the employee acquired a disability during service, the provisions of the Disabilities Act would be applicable. If he was unsuitable for his existing post, BSNL should have shifted him to another post with the same pay and benefits or kept him on a supernumerary post until superannuation. While quashing BSNL's decision to prematurely retire the employee, who is now 58 years of age, CAT stated, "The Respondents (BSNL) are directed to notionally treat the applicant in service on supernumerary post from the date of his compulsory retirement to the date of actual superannuation as per the provisions laid down in Sub section 4 of Section 20 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. He would be entitled to receive all the benefits which he would have been entitled to, if he were in service until the age he reached the age of superannuation." The bench further stated, "We made it clear that if the applicant is already paid benefits under DCRG, then the balance salary benefit and balance benefits, if any, will be paid to him as per rules."