The main legal point established in the judgment is that the period of probationary service should be included in the qualifying service for pension entitlement under the SBI VRS, and the exclusion of the probationary period from the qualifying service is illegal and arbitrary.

JUDGMENT :

DIPANKAR DATTA, J.

1. Whether or not the period of probationary service rendered by the petitioner would count for qualifying service to receive pension, is the question that has engaged our consideration while hearing this writ petition.

2. Filtering out unnecessary facts, we find that the petitioner was appointed by the Branch Manager, State Bank of India (SBI), respondent no. 4 as Cashier-cum-Clerk in the pay-scale of Rs. 520 - Rs. 1,660 on 23rd October 1985 subject to the 8 (eight) conditions mentioned therein. While condition no. (i) required the petitioner to be on probation for a period of 6 (six) months, which could be extended at the absolute discretion of the Bank by 3 (three) months, condition no. (v) stipulated that the petitioner would be considered for confirmation of service if, at the end of the probationary period, she was found to the satisfaction of the Bank, to be deserving of such confirmation in service. After satisfactory discharge of service during the probationary period, the petitioner was confirmed by an order dated 23rd April 1986 of the respondent no. 4.

3. The SBI Voluntary Retirement Scheme (SBIVRS) dated 30th December 2000 was introduced conveying to the eligible permanent employees of the bank that those who have put in 15 (fifteen) years of service or have completed 40 (forty) years of age as on 31st December 2000 would be eligible to apply for voluntary retirement thereunder. In pursuance of the SBIVRS, the petitioner put in an application dated 15th January 2001. In such application, she duly mentioned her dates of appointment and confirmation. Insofar as length of service as on 31st December 2001 is concerned, she indicated that she was in service for “15 years, 2 months.” Together with such application for voluntary retirement, the petitioner, by separate writings (all dated 15th January 2001), inter alia, prayed that monthly pension be permitted to be drawn from SBI, Parel Branch Circle, Mumbai and to commute 1/3rd of pension as well as to pay her gratuity and to allow encashment of her privilege leave. These writings also indicated that the prayers are being made assuming that SBI would accede to her request for voluntary retirement.

4. SBI found the application of the petitioner to be in order. This resulted in issuance of an order dated 14th March 2001 of the respondent no. 4 to the following effect:

“Your request for retirement under the Scheme has been accepted and you will be relieved of your duties at the close of the business on 31st March 2001.”

The petitioner, therefore, demitted office on 31st March 2001.

5. It is important to note that while applying for voluntary retirement the petitioner had included the period spent on probation within the aforesaid period of “15 years, 2 months” being her length of service. Had such period not been included, the period of service counted from the date of confirmation would have fallen short of 15 (fifteen) years and the petitioner would have been regarded ineligible for voluntary retirement. Once the application for voluntary retirement was granted, it stood to reason that the petitioner had qualified therefor and that SBI not having raised any objection to inclusion of the probationary period of service within the total length of service, it must be held to be estopped to raise any contra contention.

6. Be that as it may, the question as to whether the employees of SBI who had retired voluntarily were entitled to pension on rendering service in excess of 15 (fifteen) years as per the SBIVRS was looked into by the Supreme Court in Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India and Ors. vs. Radhey Shyam Pandey, (2020) 6 SCC 438. The concluding paragraph of the decision reads as follows: -

“64. Resultantly, we are of the opinion that the employees who completed 15 years of service or more as on cut-off date were entitled to proportionate pension under SBI VRS to be computed as per SBI Pension Fund Rules. Let the benefits be extended to all