R K BIMOL SINGH Vs. STATE OF MANIPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY judgment and order, dated 07. 12. 2004, passed in WP (C) No. 69/2002, a learned Single Judge of this Court has dismissed the writ petition, whereby the petitioner sought for, inter alia, a direction to the State respondents to pay him his retiral benefits under the scheme of voluntary retirement of the Government of Manipur.

(2.) WE have heard Mr. N. K. Singh, learned Senior counsel for the appellant, and Mr. N. Ibotombi, learned Govt. Advocate, appearing on behalf of the respondent No. 3.

(3.) BEFORE we turn to the facts, which are in dispute in the present appeal, we may set out some of the material facts, which are not in dispute. The Government of Manipur, under its office memorandum, dated 15. 03. 1978, has a scheme of voluntary retirement for its employees. This scheme comes into operation in respect of persons, who have completed 20 years of qualifying service for the purpose of pension and gratuity with a weightage of upto five years towards qualifying service, whenever applicable. The appellant came to be appointed, on 04. 09. 1962, as a lecturer in Mathematics in Adimjati Technical Institute, Imphal. While the appellant was still serving as a lecturer, the said Polytechnic was taken over by the State Government, with effect from the afternoon of 14th August, 1972, by an order, dated 13. 09. 1972, passed by the Government and the said institute became a Government Polytechnic. By another order, dated 19. 10. 1972, the Government absorbed 44 posts of Government Polytechnic, the said posts having been created under the order, dated 03. 10. 1972. By yet another order, dated 29. 09. 1978, the Government protected the past service of the staffs of the said Government Polytechnic by according ex post facto approval thereto, the past services of the staff of the said Government Polytechnic having been protected for the purpose of pay, pension, gratuity, inter-se seniority and promotion. While serving as a lecturer in the said Government Polytechnic, the petitioner submitted a representation, dated 12. 09. 1983, to the Government. This representation was treated by the Government as a letter of appellant's resignation. Having considered the said representation as a letter of resignation, the Government communicated its acceptance of the said resignation by its letter, dated 01. 10. 1983, describing therein the appellant as a senior lecturer of the Government Polytechnic Institute, Imphal. The appellant, then, wrote a letter, on 18. 06. 1984, praying for pension and gratuity as per the relevant Rules. Similar representations were made by the appellant on 14. 04. 1988 and 21. 09. 1995 too. To the representations so made, as the appellant did not receive any response from the Government, he came to this Court with the help of an application made under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, which gave rise to WP (C) No. 69/2002 aforementioned. In this writ petition, while the appellant contended that his representation, dated 12. 09. 1993, aforementioned was a letter voluntary retiring from service in terms of the said scheme, dated 15. 03. 1978, the respondents contended that the petitioner had not retired under the said scheme; rather, the appellant had resigned and his resignation having been accepted, he cannot be granted pension. The learned Single Judge took note of the representations made by the appellant herein and came to the conclusion that the appellant had resigned from service by his representation, dated 12. 09. 1993, aforementioned and, hence, the appellant is, under the Manipur Civil Service (Pension) Rules 1977, not entitled to any pension or pensionary benefit. For the conclusions so reached, the learned single Judge has dismissed the appellant's said writ petition. The appellant is, therefore, before this Court with the present appeal.