The discretion to seek voluntary retirement lies with the government servant, and the request for voluntary retirement does not require acceptance by the employer. The court emphasized the deemed acceptance of the request for voluntary retirement after the expiry of the notice period.

JUDGMENT

V. Kameswar Rao, J. (Oral)--The challenge in this petition by the Union of India/petitioner is to an order dated August 21, 2019 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (the `Tribunal', for short) in O.A. 3163/2018 whereby the Tribunal has allowed the original application filed by the respondent No.1 herein by holding that the application for voluntary retirement submitted by respondent No.1 shall be deemed to have been accepted on expiry of 90 days from the date of application and he shall be entitled to all the benefits under the relevant provisions of law within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of the Tribunal's order.

2. The facts as noted from the record are, the respondent No.1 is an IAS Officer of 1986 batch, West Bengal Cadre. In 2004, he went on central deputation and held various positions in the Government of India. The respondent No.1's central deputation came to an end on December 31, 2013. While on central deputation, the respondent No.1, received an Offer of Assignment in the International Civil Aviation Organization (`ICAO', for short) as the Regional Director for a period of four years. However, the cadre clearance for holding the said assignment for a period of four years was denied by the petitioner herein. In this regard, a communication dated January 21, 2014 was issued by the respondent No.2.

3. On January 31, 2014, the respondent No.1 made a request to respondent No.2 to permit him to take voluntary retirement w.e.f., March 31, 2014 under Rule 16(2) of the All India Service (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 (the `Rules', for short). As the aforesaid Rule stipulated a notice period of three months, the respondent No.1 made a request for relaxing the afore-said notice period. However, no steps were taken by the respondent No.2 and in the meantime in the year 2017, the Rule 16(2) of the Rules was amended.

4. On March 13, 2018, the respondent No.2 expressed its inability to accept the application for voluntary retirement submitted by the respondent No.1. The same was communicated to the respondent No.1 by the petitioner through order dated July 16, 2018 and the same became the subject matter of challenge before the Tribunal. The case of the respondent No.1 before the Tribunal was that the application for voluntary retirement ought to have been accepted by the petitioner/respondent No.2, particularly when there is nothing adverse against him in the entire service record. It was his case that on fulfillment of the conditions stipulated under the Rules, his request for voluntary retirement became acceptable without any hindrance. It was also his case that even the discretion, if at all, of the respondent No.2 could have been exercised only in the context of relaxation of the notice period and once no step in that direction was taken till the expiry of normal notice period, the right had accrued to him to go on voluntary retirement.

5. The Tribunal by relying upon the judgments of the Supreme Court in the cases of State of Haryana and others v. S.K. Singhal, (1999) (4) SCC 293 and Mahendrabhai Bhavanishankar Mehta v. State of Gujarat, 2011 SCC Online Guj 1908, allowed the O.A., by holding in paragraphs 8 to 12, as under:

"8. It is not in dispute that the notice issued by the applicant was of less than three months period. Therefore, he made a request for relaxation. The 2nd respondent did not take any decision on the request made by the applicant, before expiry of the three months notice period. Since no steps were taken by the 2nd respondent before expiry of the period of three months, nor the applicant had withdrawn his request for VRS, it emerges that a notice of three months existed. It is also necessary to take note of the fact that Rule 16 (2B) (2C) and (2D) were added through notification dated 27.02.2017. They read as under:

"16(2B) (a) The notice of voluntary retirement given in writing by the member of the service under sub-rule (2) and (2A