( 1 ) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by a former Principal of a Government recognised and aided school is directed against the action of the management of the school declining to give effect to the petitioner s communication withdrawing his letter seeking voluntary retirement and treating him as having relinquished his post. The petition has been filed in the following circumstances:

( 2 ) THE petitioner joined Shri Mahavir Jain Higher Secondary School, a Government recognised and aided institution in 1951 as P. G. T. (English) and was promoted as acting Principal in 1966 and continued to act as Principal until February 1968. Pursuant to a selection for appointment to the post of Principal, the petitioner was appointed as Principal of the school in August 1970, and was working in that capacity during the material period. It has been a common case of the parties that before the coming into force of the Delhi Education Act, 1973, for short, the Act, the age of retirement of the petitioner in terms of the Delhi Education Code, 1965, was 60 years and this condition of service of the petitioner was preserved by first proviso to Section 8 (1) o