MADHAV K KIRTIKAR Vs. BANK OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is filed by a retired Bank employee for the following reliefs :

(2.) THE facts of the case are simple and may be shortly stated. In or about 1946 the petitioner joined the respondent-Bank of India which was then a limited company. He retired from the service on 1st August, 1987. Many developments had taken place in the intervening period. What was till then a private Bank, became a nationalised Bank under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 ("act" for short ). The petitioner had put in 41 years of service with the respondent when he opted for voluntary retirement from the services of the respondent in the year 1987. The petitioner had opted for voluntary retirement in accordance with the rules contained in the Bank of India Officers Service Regulations, 1979 ("regulations" for short ). The rules regarding voluntary retirement for officer employees, inter alia, provide that an officer employee retiring voluntarily shall be entitled to all the benefits under the normal retirement, as per the service regulations.

(3.) ORIGINALLY employees of the respondent-Bank were not entitled to pension. But there was a scheme for payment of provident fund and gratuity under the rules. When there was a demand from the Bank employees for grant of pension to them, after discussions with the union, the Bank proposed to introduce the pension scheme for all the employees and certain proposals were put forth while introducing the pension scheme for the officers. It seems that the draft scheme was circulated amongst the employees-both in service as well as retired. The Bank also called for options to be exercised from the officer employees who had retired between 1st August, 1986 to 31st October, 1993. It seems that the Bank wrote to the petitioner expecting his option for pension scheme and also directed him to undergo medical examination at his costs from the Banks approved doctors for the purposes of commutation of pension. The petitioner vide his letter dated 22nd July, 1994 exercised his option to join the pension scheme. He also exercised his option to commute one-third of the pension. He also got himself medically examined by the respondents doctor.