§ 70. Superannuation retirement. a. Any member may retire if he or she shall have attained at least the minimum retirement age while in service as a member, or while in federal service, or in the service of the United Nations or other international organizations of which the United States is a member, as a member continued pursuant to paragraph one of subdivision f of section forty of this article, or while entitled to make application for a vested retirement allowance pursuant to section seventy-six of this title. Any such member desiring to retire shall execute and file with the comptroller an application for retirement, which shall specify the effective date of his or her retirement, which shall be not less than fifteen nor more than ninety days subsequent to such date of filing. An application for service retirement, filed hereunder in accordance with the provisions of subdivision c of section sixty-two or subdivision f of section sixty-three of this article, shall be processed in the regular manner, provided that if the application filed simultaneously therewith under either of such subdivisions is granted, then and in that event the retirement allowance granted in accordance with the provisions of this section shall be appropriately adjusted. b. Any member who attains age seventy shall be retired on the first day of the calendar month next succeeding such event. Such retirement shall be on the basis of "Option One-half", unless the member files an effective election pursuant to section ninety of this article to retire on a different basis. If he shall have filed such an election, his retirement allowance shall be computed in accordance with the basis so selected by him. The provisions of this subdivision with respect to mandatory retirement shall be inapplicable to: 1. An elective officer. 2. A judge. 3. A justice. 4. An official referee. 5. A person holding office by virtue of an appointment to fill a vacancy in an elective office. 6. An employee of the port of New York authority. 7. A person who last became a member before April eleventh, nineteen hundred forty-five, and who serves continuously after such date in one or more of the following capacities:

(a) A clerk of a court, as provided in the constitution, article six, section twenty-one.

(b) An appointee of the governor.

(c) An employee of the legislature drawing an annual salary, or

(d) A chaplain of a county penal institution having served as such chaplain for not less than thirty years, or 8. A commissioner of elections. c. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision b of this section, the state civil service commission may approve the continuance in service of members who have attained age seventy. Such approvals shall be for periods not to exceed two years each. No such approval shall be given unless: 1. The head of the department in which the member is employed shall file a written statement with the comptroller approving such continuance, and 2. The medical board shall certify that such member is physically fit to perform the duties of his position, and 3. The state civil service commission shall find that:

(a) Such member is less than seventy-eight years of age, and

(b) His continuance in service would be advantageous because of his expert knowledge and special qualifications. The service of any such member may, however, be terminated at any time by the head of the department in which he is employed, upon sixty days written notice to such member.