Fact Check: Viral notice about change in retirement age of govt employees is FAKE

The age of retirement for central government employees remains unchanged. 

India Today Fact Check

Claim
The government has increased the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 62.

Fact
The viral notice is fake. The Centre has not made any change in the age of retirement of central government employees.

Sharing the photo of what appears to be an official notification, many on social media claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre increased the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 62 years. This alleged new rule will apply to employees who will retire after April 1, 2025. In this document that’s being shared, an explanation for the reasons behind introducing this change and how it will benefit the employees was also given. Its archived version can be seen here.

India Today Fact Check found that this notice is completely fake. The Centre has not made any change to the age of retirement for central government employees.

The government’s take

With the help of a keyword search, we found a post from the Press Information Bureau’s fact-check unit dated November 19. The post stated that the viral notice was fake and that the government had taken no such decision.

Source of the ‘notice’

Further searches led us to another post containing photos of a three-page-long version of the viral document. The text on this document was copied from an article. Both the article and the viral document mentioned the source of their information as a website named NCCCC.

The website claims to be a “go-to source for the latest updates on government schemes, finance, trending topics, auto news, and more,” with a mission “to offer timely, accurate, and thorough coverage of the issues that matter most to you.”

This website featured a disclaimer that read: “The information provided on [the website] is for general informational purposes only. All content on the site is provided in good faith, but we make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the site.” It further stated this website is not affiliated with any government institution, government department, or educational institution.

The website also had an article about the viral notice in question that talked about possibilities of change in the retirement age of government employees, while clearly mentioning at the end, that the government had not made any such announcement yet.

On August 9, 2023, Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for the Department of Personnel and Training, responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, stated that no proposal for changing the retirement age of central government employees was under consideration by the government. A PDF of this Q&A session can be seen on the official website of the Parliament of India.

It is also noteworthy that in official Department of Personnel and Training notifications, a unique number, name of the department, date, and other details are provided. These were missing in the viral document.

The official age of retirement

According to the Department of Personnel and Training, every government employee shall retire from service after attaining the age of sixty years or on the expiry of any further extension granted by the central government in public interest. However, the age of retirement for doctors working in government ministries, departments, or other health services, can go from 62 to 65 years. Specialists in scientific fields can also be granted an extension of service up to the age of 64.

It is thus, clear that this notice about an extension of the retirement age for central government employees is fake.