The Bombay High Court has held that an application under Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) can be withdrawn before the employer accepts it. Division bench of Justices S A Bobade and Vasanti Naik held in the recent judgement that even though the VRS rules do not provide for withdrawal of application, it can be allowed.
Petitioner Madhusudan Trivedi, who was working with UCO Bank, Nagpur, had sought voluntary retirement under the scheme that was announced by the bank in November 2000.
He applied for VRS on January 1, 2001.
However, he contended in his petition that at the time of applying for it, he was not aware of all the provisions of the scheme.
On realising that some provisions did not suit him, he wrote to the bank that he wanted to withdraw his application.
However, the bank said that according to the rule, an application once made could not be taken back.
Trivedi then moved the Nagpur bench of the high court. The high court observed that the bank was yet to approve Trivedi’s VRS application when he sought to withdraw it. Therefore, relying on a Supreme Court ruling, the High Court held that as long as his application was not accepted Trivedi was free to withdraw it.
