( 1 ) "to be" or "not to be" was the question with which like Hamlet, the appellant was confronted with and in the conflagration thereof he opted to relinquish his office as Major in Army EME to assuage from domestic tribulations and sent letter dated 29/10/1982 for voluntary retirement. Though he retraced the step after reflection he is landed in legal tangle and knocked the door of this Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution to extricate therefrom. For the elaboration thereof, it is necessary to delineate in a nutshell the undisputed facts : While having Bachelors course of Engineering and N. C. C. , the appellant had the short service commission on 22/02/1965 and in a short span scaled over to higher echelons of service in quick succession, as a Major and was discharging his duties in the Military College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Secunderabad. He has exhibited undaunted exemplary valour on war front in 1971 and devotion to duty unmindful of consequences to his person and brought two abandoned enemy tanks after due repair and earned unquestioned reputation to be an Officer of efficiency, integrity and relentless devotion to duty, in fairness