HITESH KUMAR SARMA, J.

1. By this writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has sought for a declaration that he has voluntarily retired from his service w.e.f. 31.08.2018 as well as a direction to the respondent authorities to release him from service w.e.f. 01.09.2018 with all retirement benefits.

2. The fact, in a narrow campus, is that the petitioner joined as Junior Engineer in the Public Works Department, Arunachal Pradesh, (in short P.W.D.) in the year 1991 and has completed 27 (twenty seven) years of service in the department. On temporary promotion, the petitioner was serving as Executive Engineer immediately before filing of this writ petition. Being desirous of contesting the Legislative Assembly Election-2019, he decided to voluntarily retire from service and exercised his right under Rule 48-A of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as the CCS (Pension) Rules) and submitted an application, dated 30.04.2018, giving notice of voluntary retirement with a prayer that such voluntary retirement be made effective from 31.08.2018. The said notice has been annexed with the petition as Anexure-1. The Superintending Engineer, Yachuli Civil Circle, P.W.D., vide letter, dated 03.05.2018, forwarded the aforesaid notice of the petitioner for voluntary retirement to the Chief Engineer (Central Zone), P.W.D. and the Chief Engineer, in turn, forwarded the same to the Commissioner, P.W.D. on 07.05.2018, vide letter at page 18 and 20, respectively. The under Secretary, P.W.D., sought vigilance clearance in respect of the petitioner, vide Annexure-3, at page 21, of the writ petition. Since no response was received, the under Secretary, P.W.D., vide letter dated 11.09.2018 (Annexure-4 at page 23), issued a reminder to the under Secretary, Vigilance, Government of Arunachal Pradesh to furnish the vigilance clearance of the petitioner for onward submission of same to the competent authority. As voluntary retirement is deemed to have come into effect upon completion of the notice period i.e., 31.08.2018 in terms of proviso to Sub-Rule 2 of Rule 48-A of the CCS (Pension) Rules, the petitioner submitted a representation on 03.10.2018, vide Annexure-5, to release him from service w.e.f. 31.08.2018. This representation, seeking release, evoked no response from the respondent authorities. Therefore, this writ petition seeking the declaration as well as the direction, indicated above.

3. The respondent No. 3, the Commissioner of P.W.D., filed an affidavit-in-opposition. Paragraphs 7 and 8 of the said affidavit-in-opposition are quoted below for convenience of appreciation.

"7. That with regard to the statement made in paragraph-8 of the writ petition, the answering respondent begs to state that it is a fact that Shri Tai Nikio has submitted a representation dated 03.10.2018 to the Government with a request to release him from Government service as per existing rule. The said representation has been submitted to the competent authority vide file No. SPWD-27/2018 on 09.10.2018 for decision and further instruction which is awaited.

8. That with regards to the statement made in paragraph-9 of the writ petition, the answering respondent begs to state that neither the Vigilance Department did issue any Vigilance clearance in respect of petitioner nor intimated this department about reason for withholding his vigilance clearance even after the lapse of 6 (six) months time."

4. It emerges from the statements made in para 7 and 8 above that the P.W.D., i.e., the appointing department of the petitioner has not passed any order either allowing or refusing voluntary retirement of the petitioner and the grounds cited for such inaction is lack of communication from the Vigilance department.

5. The respondent No. 6, the Under Secretary (Vigilance SIC), Government of Arunachal Pradesh, has also filed an affidavit-in-opposition stating therein, inter alia, that certain complaints have b