HUMAN RIGHT COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA - Annual report 2020 petitioners alleged that such calculation failed to take into account other increments and special allowances that were awarded to employees in active service such as the triennial salary increment, the salary increase due on the triennial salary increment, and the salary increase pursuant to being promoted upon reaching the maximum salary increment in their current salary scale. The respondent argued that if such special allowances and increments awarded to employees in active service were to be taken into consideration, the petitioner should have opted for the pension scheme stipulated as ‘C’ (“ඇ”) in the circular in issue. The Commission found that the petitioners had a legitimate expectation recognized in judgments such as Samaraweera v. People’s Bank and Other 2 SLR 2007, for their pensions to be calculated as it would have been calculated upon naturally reaching 55 years in active service. The Commission further opined that the persons who obtained their pensions according to the circular, should be entitled to similar benefits regardless of the scheme for which they opted. The Commission recommended for the petitioners’ pensions to be recalculated taking into consideration all allowances, increments, and other benefits that employees in active service obtains until they reach 55 years of age and further to award the pension and arrears to be paid within a time period of 4 months. 3.2.3.  Multiple rights violations Physical punishment meted out to a school student (Complaint No: HRC/AP/535/2017) The HRCSL found a violation of articles 11 and 12 (1) of the Constitution by the Principal and a teacher of a public school in Rabawa, Anuradhapura for meting out physical punishment on a student for disciplinary purposes. The principal was accused of caning the victim for disobeying instructions regarding the school uniform and physical appearance as the student has allegedly come to school with an unfit uniform and a grown-out beard. The teacher was accused of using profanity and threatening to hit the student. The Commission took cognizance of the testimonies of three eye witnesses which corroborated the facts alleged by the complainant. Further, the victim student has allegedly been sent out from the school during school hours without a custodian to get his beard shaved in a nearby salon. The 52