Patna, Jan. 20: The state government is planning to increase the retirement age of teachers in universities from 62 to 65 years with a service period cap aimed at saving money spent on exorbitant salary of senior teachers. The saved amount would be used to fill up the vacancies with juniors.

While the Bihar government is game for increasing the retirement age of teachers by three years, it is planning to introduce a service period limit of 35 years for teachers. Sources in human resource development (HRD) department said the state government would introduce a bill in the state cabinet soon.

Once the limited service period rule is implemented, about 500 teachers in various universities would retire, creating a large number of vacancies of teachers across various universities of the state. The teachers who would be shown the door would mostly be professors drawing a monthly salary of more than Rs 1 lakh each.

HRD sources said the move was aimed at filling up the large number of vacant posts across various universities. With the retirement of professors drawing a salary of more than Rs 1 lakh, the state government can appoint over 1,200 teachers in the rank of assistant professors, who would draw a monthly salary between Rs 15,600 and Rs 39,100.

There are more than 13,000 sanctioned posts for teachers at various universities. Of them, 7,000 posts are vacant.

In Patna University alone, 547 out of 957 sanctioned posts for teachers are vacant. Similarly, at Magadh University, 1,500 out of 3,856 posts are vacant.

By introducing the new bill, the state government can easily fill up these vacancies.

In August last year, Patna High Court had asked the state government to extend the age of retirement of the university teachers from the existing 62 to 65 years with effect from June 30. However, the state government is yet to take a final decision on it.

In September last year, the high court had asked the state universities why it did not implement its order of increasing the retirement age of teachers to 65 years.

Sources said despite the high court directive the government did not increase the retirement age of teachers from 62 to 65 years as the government was planning to introduce 35-year service period limit.

State HRD department principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said: “The government will look into increasing the retirement age of teachers from 62 to 65 years by introducing a service period of 35 years. It will come into effect after the state government amends the University Service Act.”