( 1 ) THIS case is the tale of a man who lost his balance of mind due to financial difficulties, and has there by posed a nice legal problem. Harendralal Bhattacharyya was born on 1st September 1921. He is a displaced person from what was formerly East Pakistan, and is now Bangladesh. On 10th August 1949 he was appointed a stenographer in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. In 1958, he qualified for the Subordinate Accounts Service. Shortly afterwards, in 1959, he was prompted to the post of Accountant. In the course of time, he rose to be a Senior Personal Assistant in

( 2 ) ON account of being a displaced person, Bhattacharyya was able to obtain the allotment of a plot of land from the Rehabilitation Department of the Government of India in 1971. This became the cause of all his woes. The plot was situated in Chittaranjan Bark, New Delhi, and measured 160 sq. yds. By the terms. of allotment he. was required to construct a house thereon within 2 years. He had very little money of his own. So, far raising the necessary funds he sought loans from the Government. He was advanced Rs. 3,840. 00 for the purchase of the land, and Rs. 36,560. 00 for constructing the house. Later, on his urgent requests, he was advanced another sum of Rs. 10,400. 00 to complete the building.

( 3 ) NATURALLY, for recovering the amounts advanced, the Government began to make monthly deductions from Bhattacharyya s salary. There were also deductions on other accounts. This left very little for him to take home. Despite the sympathetic attitude of his superiors, and their attempts to accommodate him as much as they could, he received in hand only Rs. 98. 53 as his salary for the month of March 1976, and Rs. 65. 79 for April. . It was clearly impossible for him to support his family on such sums. Understandably, he was driven to desperation and lost his mental equilibrium.

( 4 ) IN order to cope with the situation, he seems to have thought that if he retired from service and commuted his entire pension, he would be able to pay off the loans he had taken from Government. He also seems to have had the expectation that. he would be able to obtain a job in some public sector organisation. Nothing seems to have been fully and carefully worked out, but these were the lines on which his mind was functioning.

( 5 ) IN this frame of mind, he wrote a letter dated 4th May 1976 to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. After describing his state of misery ( yesterday we were without food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ), he said : It is, therefore, desirable that I should retire from Government service so that all my problems. may be solved . He, then, proceeded as follows :

THEREFORE, propose to retire from Government service on 19th August 1976 a little over 3 months still to run. This may kindly be taken as notice from my side. I request that my pension papers may kindly be processed on a very top priority basis.

THE rest of the letter is not material, except that he asks for 1/3rd of his pension to be communted with effect from 19th August 1976 itself, and adds that he is applying separately for full commutation of his pension, which he requests may be done expeditiously.

( 6 ) ON 30th June 1976, the Deputy Director (Personnel), in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, issued an office order saying that In pursuance of the notice dated 4-5-1976 given by him under F. R. 56 (k) , Bhattacharyya had been permitted by the appropriate Authority to retire from Government Service with effect from 19-8-1976 (Forenoon) . Thus, the notice of voluntary retirement stood accepted.

( 7 ) ON 17th July 1976, the allotment of the Government quarter, in which Bhattacharyya was residing, was cancelled. At or about the same time, the Rehabilitation Department threatened to cancel the allotment of the plot at Chittaranjan Park as the house was still incomplete. Bhatacharyya s attempts to find a job with a public