Case Law Details
Union of India Vs Abhiram Verma (Supreme Court of India)
Conclusion: In present facts of the case, the Hon’ble Apex court while allowing the Appeal have made distinction between ‘resignation’ and ‘voluntary retirement’ and have held that having tendered the ‘resignation’, the respondent has to suffer the consequences and now cannot be permitted to take ‘U’ turn and say that what the respondent wanted was ‘premature retirement’ and not ‘resignation’. It was also observed that while pension schemes do form beneficial legislation in a delegated form, a beneficial construction cannot run contrary to the express terms of the provisions.
Facts: The Respondent in the present case is commissioned in the Indian Army (Armed Medical Corps) as a Short Service Commission Officer on 27.03.1992 for a period of five years at the age of 33 years and 10 months. He voluntarily applied for Permanent Commission on 7.8.1997. He was granted Permanent Commission at the age of 39 years and 2 months on 28.01.1998. Respondent became a Graded Specialist on 1.6.1994 and thereafter he became a Classified Specialist on 1.6.1999. By letter/application dated 15.04.2000, the respondent applied for resignation on the ground of lack of promotional prospects. At that stage, his actual date of superannuation at 56 years of age was 31.05.2014. The application for resignation came to be rejected by the DG, Medical Services (Army) vide communication dated 4.9.2000. That thereafter the respondent filed a statutory complaint on 24.03.2001 against the rejection of his resignation, the same was rejected by the Under Secretary, Government of India on 14.03.2002. That thereafter the respondent filed a writ petition before the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir being SWP No. 1573/2001 against the rejection of his complaint by the Under Secretary, Government of India. The said writ petition came to be allowed by the High Court vide order dated 11.10.2006 quashing the order of the Under Secretary which rejected the respondent’s resignation and directed the Army to consider the case of resignation afresh. That thereafter the respondent’s resignation came to be accepted vide order/communication dated 31.01.2007, however, it was stated that he was not entitled to any terminal benefits except for encashment of leave (the denial of the terminal benefits was the subject matter before the Armed Forces Tribunal). The name of the respondent was struck off from the Army Medical Corps vide movement order dated 22.04.2007, with effect from 23.04.2007.
That thereafter the respondent preferred the writ petition before the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir being SWP No. 454/2008 for grant of gratuity and pension, which subsequently came to be transferred to the Armed Forces Tribunal as TA No. 25/2017. That by the impugned judgment and order dated 9.2.2018, the learned Tribunal has disposed of the said transfer application directing the appellants to process the respondent’s claim for terminal/pensionary benefits taking qualifying service as 15 years as a “late entrant” under Regulation 15 of the Pension Regulations. That leave to appeal has also been dismissed by the learned Tribunal vide order dated 25.03.2019.
Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the learned Tribunal directing the appellants to process the respondent’s claim for terminal/pensionary benefits taking qualifying service as 15 years as a “late entrant” under Regulation 15 of the Pension Regulation, the Union of India and another have preferred the present appeal.
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