KAMLESH PRATAP SINGH Vs. UNITED BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner, who was an employee of the respondent/United Bank of India, seeks the relief that respondent/Bank be directed to accept the option for pension which has been exercised in terms of the Pension Scheme of the respondent/Bank dated 16.8.2010.

(2.) It is not in issue that the petitioner had put in the minimum number of 15 years of service with the respondent/Bank so as to claim pension, however, the issue to be decided by this Court is whether the petitioner who has suffered the penalty of compulsory retirement, should or should not be allowed to exercise the option for pension in terms of the 2010 Pension Scheme. The punishment which was imposed upon the petitioner by the Disciplinary Authority is by the order dated 23.12.2009, and which reads as under: -

(3.) A reading of the aforesaid penalty imposed upon the petitioner shows that the petitioner, no doubt, was compulsorily retired, but, he was retired with superannuation benefits. In the 2010 Pension Scheme of the respondent/Bank, originally in the para which specifies the persons entitled to exercise the pension option, the expression 'voluntary retirement' was found, but subsequently the expression 'voluntary' was taken away and only the word 'retirement' remained i.e all persons who would have retired from the respondent/Bank on and after 29.9.1995 were to be entitled to exercise the pension option. The original clause and the substituted clause read as under: -