IN THE HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY
(NAGPUR BENCH)
Gavai B.R., J.
Digamber Yeshwantrao Watane .... Petitioner.
Versus
Agricultural Produce Market Committee,
Achalpur others.... Respondents.
Writ Petition No. 2349 of 1989, decided on 5-7-2004.
Advocates appeared :
Mihir Kanade, for petitioner.
M.N. Ingle, for respondent No. 1.
Smt. N.S. Jog, A.G.P., for respondent No. 2.
Contract Act, 1872 - Section 10 - Voluntary retire- ment. - Rights and obligations while granting voluntary retirement depend upon facts of each case and they will never govern rights and obligations while employee retires at superannuation. There was a concluded contract of voluntary retirement between petitioner and respondent.
2. Factual background giving rise to filing of the present is as under:--
That, the petitioner was working as a Secretary in A.P.M.C., Achalpur, the respondent No. 1 herein, since its inception i.e. 1963. On account of certain grievance, the petitioner submitted an offer for voluntary retirement vide his letter dated 28th October, 1986. In the letter, offering for voluntary retirement, the petitioner had put certain conditions. The relevant condition for adjudication of the present petition in the said letter is Condition No. 2, which reads thus, "that an amount of gratuity should be paid in accordance with the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and Rule 34(C) of Service Conditions of A.P.M.C. as per the pay payable to the petitioner on the date of retirement."
3. The said letter of the petitioner offering for voluntary retirement was placed before the Committee of the respondent No. 1, A.P.M.C. in its meeting held on 29th October, 1986. The Committee considered the offer to the petitioner and accepted to give voluntary retirement to the petitioner on certain conditions. The relevant condition for the purposes of the present petition is, "an amount of Rs. 52,440/- should be paid on account of gratuity being twenty months salary. It was also decided in the said meeting that in case in future the pension scheme is applicable to the respondent No. 1, A.P.M.C., then in that event the petitioner would be entitled to receive the pension. It is further clarified that if pension scheme is applicable then the petitioner will have to refund certain amount in accordance with the rules and only on refund of such amount, the pension scheme would be made applicable to the petitioner. The said offer was communicated to the petitioner by letter dated 15-11-1986 by the Chairman of the respondent No. 1, Committee. Alongwith the said letter, a true copy of the Resolution No. 11/3 of the meeting held on 29th October, 1986 was also annexed. The petitioner addressed a letter of the same date i.e. 15-11-1986 to the Chairman of respondent No. 1 stating therein that the decision taken by the respondent No. 1 vide Resolution No. 11/3 in the meeting dated 29th October, 1986 regarding voluntary retirement of the petitioner is acceptable to him and that he will have no future grievance.
4. The District Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies took an objection to the decision of A.P.M.C. of paying Rs. 52,440/- towards payment of gratuity being twenty months salary. The objection raised was that the said payment was made in excess of the provisions of the said Act. Accordingly, the petitioner was sent a communication dated 15-11-1987 by the respondent No. 1 A.P.M.C. communicating therein that since the service of the petitioner was only 23 years, three months and 15 days , he was entitled only for the salary for 11 months and 20 days towards payment of gratuity. The said amount was quantified at Rs. 30,590/- It was thus stated in the letter that after adjusting all the payments made to the petitioner, only an amount of Rs. 2,808 was payable to the petitioner. Vide the said letter, the petitioner was requested to receive the said amount from the office of respondent-A.P.M.C. Being aggrieved by the objection raise by the D.D.R. and the consequential letter addressed by the A.P.M.C., the petitioner filed a revision under section 43 of the said Act before the Divisional Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Amravati. The Divisional Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies, respondent No. 2 herein, dismissed the revision application filed by the petitioner vide order dated 15-7-1989. Being aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner has approached this Court.
5. Heard Shir Mihir Kanade, the learned Counsel appearing on
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