JUDGMENT

Aftab Alam, J. —

1. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and order dated September 3, 2003 passed by a division bench of the Allahabad High Court on a writ petition (Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No.6162 of 2003) filed by the respondent who was at that time working as an officer in the appellant-bank. The High Court allowed the writ petition filed by the respondent, quashed the decision of the bank rejecting his application for voluntary retirement under the bank’s scheme and directed the appellant-bank to accept his application for voluntary retirement forthwith.

2. This Court while granting special leave to appeal, by order dated February 11, 2005, stayed the operation of the order of the High Court coming under appeal. As a result, the respondent continued in service and eventually retired on reaching the age of superannuation on June 6, 2009. He has been paid his terminal dues and is also getting regularly his monthly pension. In view of this material change in circumstances during the pendency of the appeal, we suggested that the parties should negotiate and try to come to some amicable settlement. They were, however, unable to come to terms and the respondent insisted that the appeal be heard on merits and in case it is finally dismissed, then, the Court may consider how to appropriately mould the relief in his favour. We, accordingly, proceeded to examine the respondent’s claim for grant of voluntary retirement under the scheme of the bank on merits.

3. In order to examine the case of the rival sides in perspective, it would be useful to briefly state the relevant facts. The board of directors of the appellant-bank in its meeting held on November 25, 2000 approved a voluntary retirement scheme for the officers and employees of the bank, called the IOB Officers/Employees Voluntary Retirement Scheme - 2000 (“the scheme” for short). The object of the scheme was “to adopt measures to have optimum human resources at various levels in keeping with the business strategies, skill profile to achieve balanced age and requirement of the bank.” The scheme remained in operation for 5 weeks from December 15, 2000 to January 19, 2001.

4. The eligibility to apply for voluntary retirement under the scheme was laid down in Clause 4. Clause 4.1 provided that all permanent employees with 15 years of service or 40 years of age would be eligible to apply for voluntary retirement under the scheme. Clause 4.2 enumerated the six categories (from sub-clauses ‘a’ to ‘f’) that would not be eligible to seek voluntary retirement under the scheme. Under the heading ‘General Conditions’ it was stated, in paragraph 4, that depending upon the requirement of the bank, the competent authority would have absolute discretion, subject to recording the reasons for the decision, either to accept or reject the request of an officer/employee seeking voluntary retirement under the scheme. Paragraph 10 provided that the cases of officers/employees opting for voluntary retirement under the scheme against whom disciplinary proceedings were contemplated would be considered by the respective disciplinary authorities having regard to the facts of each case before forwarding the request of such officers/employees to the competent authority. Under the heading ‘Clarifications’ (in Annexure II to the Scheme), it was stated, in paragraph 2, that disciplinary proceedings would be deemed to be pending for the purpose of VRS, if the member had been placed under suspension or any notice had been issued to him to show cause why disciplinary proceedings should not be instituted against him and would be deemed to be pending until final orders were passed by the disciplinary authority.

5. On December 15, 2000, the respondent made an application seeking voluntary retirement from the service of the bank under the scheme. At that time, the respondent was working as Chief Manager (in Scale IV), Indian Overseas Bank, Allahabad. It is not disputed