Resignation versus voluntary retirement: past service forfeiture under pension rules barred pensionary benefits despite long service.

Resignation under Rule 26 of the Central Civil Service Pension Rules 1972 results in forfeiture of past service, and that consequence cannot be avoided by treating resignation as voluntary retirement merely because the employee had completed the qualifying service period. The SC distinguished resignation from voluntary retirement and held that beneficial pension provisions do not erase that distinction or give retrospective effect to the voluntary retirement regime. Completion of twenty years' service did not override the legal effect of resignation, so pensionary entitlement was denied and the finding of voluntary retirement was set aside.

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Issues: (i) whether the employee's resignation could be treated as voluntary retirement so as to preserve pensionary entitlement; (ii) whether completion of twenty years' service could override the forfeiture of past service on resignation.

Issue (i): whether the employee's resignation could be treated as voluntary retirement so as to preserve pensionary entitlement.

Analysis: Rule 26 of the Central Civil Service Pension Rules 1972 provides that resignation entails forfeiture of past service. The distinction between resignation and voluntary retirement is legally material and cannot be erased by recharacterising one as the other merely because the employee had completed the qualifying period or because pension provisions are beneficial in nature. The Court held that the earlier approach treating resignation as voluntary retirement could not be applied, as it would give retrospective effect to the voluntary retirement regime and render the express consequence of resignation nugatory.

Conclusion: The employee's resignation could not be treated as voluntary retirement, and past service stood forfeited.

Issue (ii): whether completion of twenty years' service could override the forfeiture of past service on resignation.

Analysis: Even assuming the employee had completed twenty years of service, that fact did not alter the legal consequence of resignation under Rule 26. The earlier denial of voluntary retirement was not challenged, and the employee thereafter resigned and admitted resignation in later proceedings. Since resignation, once accepted, carried forfeiture of past service, the length of service did not confer entitlement to pensionary benefits.

Conclusion: Completion of twenty years' service did not entitle the employee to pensionary benefits after resignation.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded, the finding that the employee had voluntarily retired was set aside, and pensionary benefits were denied.

Ratio Decidendi: Resignation and voluntary retirement are distinct legal concepts, and where the applicable rules provide that resignation entails forfeiture of past service, an employee cannot be treated as having voluntarily retired to claim pensionary benefits.

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