SACHIN KUMAR PRAVIN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners in all these writ petitions are Airmen with the Indian Air Force - either working in the capacity of Sergeant or Corporal. They have filed these petitions seeking identical relief. After some years of service in the Air Force they want to be relieved from Air Force service on the ground that they have been appointed for civil post in different organizations which are Central Government/State Government or Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). Their plea is that on their appointment to civil post in the Central Government/State Government/ PSUs they are entitled to 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) to enable them to join the said civil post for which they are selected. They had made requests for issuance of NOC, but the respondents have turned down all such. In these circumstances, the relief prayed for is to quash the rejection orders and direct the respondents to issue NOC for civil post for which they have been selected.

(2.) IN view of the commonality of the factual position operating in all these cases which are governed by identical Rules and Regulations, we had heard these petitions together. Writ Petition (Civil) No. 6272 of 2007 was treated as lead case. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, we may start our discussion while taking note of the facts of this writ petition.

(3.) UNDER what circumstances such an NOC can be granted or rejected would be appreciated better when we glance through the relevant provisions on the subject. Thus we proceed to take note of the extant Rules: