ORDER

1. These petitions have been filed challenging the judgments and orders of the High Court of Madras dated 12.3.2002 in Writ Petition No. 21384 of 1994 and dated 20.7.2007 in Writ Appeal No. 2415 of 2002, rejecting the claim of the petitioner for directing the respondents to grant voluntary retirement to him from 12.11.1994.

2. Facts and circumstances giving rise to these petitions are that:

A. Petitioner joined the service of the erstwhile Indian Airlines Limited on 19.3.1972 as First Officer, and he has acquired the necessary license for becoming a Pilot. Petitioner was promoted as a Captain on 19.12.1975 and was further promoted as Commander on 1.1.1986.

B. The respondents came out with a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (in short ‘VRS’) for its employees in 1989 in order to reduce the surplus manpower. The said scheme was for the employees who had completed 25 years of service or had attained 55 years of age. Subsequently, the condition prescribed in the aforementioned scheme was reduced to 20 years of service in 1992.

C. Regulation 12 of the Service Regulations provided that if an employee fulfils the aforesaid criteria of eligibility he can give three months’ notice for voluntary retirement. However, the acceptance of the said resignation would be subject to the approval of the competent authority.

D. The petitioner completed 20 years of service on 19.3.1992. He was promoted as Deputy General Manager (Operations) on 30.8.1994. On 7.11.1994, the petitioner submitted an application seeking VRS w.e.f. 12.11.1994. Petitioner was informed vide letter dated 11.11.1994 that he should continue in service till the time decision is taken.

However, the petitioner did not attend the duty after 12.11.1994. Petitioner joined the services of Blue Dart Ltd., and as he did not go to the respondents to work from 12.11.1994 and there had been no response from the respondents, he filed Writ Petition No. 19143 of 1994 for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to accept the petitioner’s application for voluntary retirement.

E. During the pendency of the said petition, the petitioner was informed by respondent no.4 vide letter dated 13/15.12.1994 that his application had been rejected. Thus, the writ petition filed by the petitioner had become infructuous and the petitioner preferred another Writ Petition No. 21384 of 1994 challenging the order dated 13/15.12.1994.

F. The respondents contested the said writ petition and during the pendency of the said writ petition the petitioner attained the age of superannuation i.e. 58 years of age on 7.3.2001. The learned Single Judge dismissed the said writ petition vide order dated 12.3.2002.

G. Aggrieved, the petitioner preferred Writ Appeal No. 2415 of 2002 which has been dismissed vide impugned judgment and order.

Hence, these petitions.

3. We have heard Shri Manish Pitale, learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Lalit Bhasin, learned counsel appearing for the respondents and perused the record.

4. The High Court has examined all the aspects of the matter. Admittedly, the petitioner did not ensure compliance of Regulation 12(b) of the Service Regulations which required a three months’ notice as a condition for applying for VRS. The stand taken by the petitioner that he had sufficient number of earned leaves in his leave account which could be adjusted in lieu of three months’ notice, had been rightly rejected by the High Court.

5. Regulation 12 reads as under:

“An employee shall retire from the service of the corporation (now Company) on attaining the age of 58 years provided that the Competent Authority may ask an employee to retire after he attains the age of 55 years, on giving 3 months notice, without giving any reason. An employee.

a) on attaining the age of 55 years; or

b) on the completion of 20 years of continuous service, may by giving 3 months, voluntarily retire from service, provided that the voluntary retirement under Clause (b) shall be subject to approval of the Competent Authori