Shimla, Aug 12 – In a strong rebuke to the state government, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed that Dr. Susheela Rana, former Professor and Head of Anatomy at Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College, Ner Chowk, be reinstated and granted service extension till 68 years, along with all consequential benefits.
The Justice Sandeep Sharma held that the government acted “unfairly and with bias” by retiring Dr. Rana at 65 on March 6, 2025, despite her pending petition seeking extension under government policies of 2020, 2021, and 2023.
Dr. Rana had earlier served at IGMC Shimla before shifting to Ner Chowk in 2017 under a state scheme promising higher retirement age to attract faculty to new medical colleges.
RTI records placed before the court revealed 13 vacant professor posts in Pt. JLNGMC Chamba and 54 faculty vacancies overall – a shortage that had previously led to penalties from the National Medical Commission.
The court noted that other similarly placed professors were allowed to work till 68 and there was no record of misconduct or poor performance against Dr. Rana.
It slammed the government for bypassing judicial propriety by retiring her without seeking the court’s leave during the pendency of the case.
The bench directed the government to treat her as being in continuous service and grant the same retirement age extension up to 68 years, warning that the “case-to-case” clause in policy cannot be twisted for arbitrary discrimination.
For the petitioner Mr. C.N. Singh, Dr. Nidhi Singh and Mr. Anshul Gandhi were the advocates.
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