Employee can seek VRS before 20 years of service, rules Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, April 2

In a significant judgment on voluntary retirement from the government service, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today ruled that an employee could seek the same even before completion of 20 years of service.

Justice Jaishree Thakur ruled that the employee completing 15 years of qualifying service may retire by giving three-month notice in writing to the appropriate authority.

The judgment assumes significance as the state’s stand in the matter was that voluntary retirement plea could not be acceded to on the ground that the qualifying service was of 20 years. Justice Thakur also made it clear that an employee’s request for voluntary retirement by giving a three-month notice would be deemed to have been accepted by the authorities concerned in the absence of refusal to accept the same.

The ruling by Justice Thakur came on a bunch of two petitions against the state of Punjab and other respondents by Gurmit Singh and other petitioners through counsel Dhiraj Chawla. Appearing before the Bench, Chawla submitted that the petitioner in one of the cases — a Punjab Police official — was seeking the acceptance of his request for voluntary retirement and the release of pension, gratuity, leave encashment and all other retirement benefits.

Chawla told Justice Thakur’s Bench that the impugned order whereby his request stood rejected was unsustainable as he was entitled to pension upon voluntary retirement after 15 years of regular service.

Justice Thakur asserted a respondent failed to take into account the amendment to Rule 3 of the Punjab Civil Services (Premature Retirement Rules) 1975, while deciding the issue. Elaborating, Justice Thakur asserted: “A bare reading of the rule would show that an employee who has completed 15 years of qualifying service may, by giving notice of not less than three months in writing to the appropriate authority, retire from service.” Before parting with the case, Justice Thakur also set two months’ deadline for implementing the directions. “The payments be released within the period, failing which the interest will be at 12 per cent per annum,” the Bench concluded.