1. The petitioner was a Driver under the respondent/Tamil Nadu Transport Corporation (Division – I), Villupuram. He retired from service under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme with effect from 30.04.2002. When he claimed pension under the Transport Corporation Employees Pension Fund, it was declined on the ground that he did not attain 50 years of age as on the date of his voluntary retirement though, he had put in more than 20 years of service as required under Clause 16 of the Pension Scheme. The order of rejection passed by the second respondent in his letter No.123/PE5/TNSTC(D-1) 2003 dated 06.02.2003, is under challenge in this writ petition.

2. The facts leading to this writ petition are as follows:-

The Government of Tamil Nadu issued G.O (Ms) No.2010 Transport Department dated 03.11.1987, introducing a special Scheme for voluntary retirement of employees of State Transport Undertakings. As per paragraph No.2 of the said Government Order, the eligibility for seeking voluntary retirement is 50 years of age and 20 years of service. To be precise, let me extract paragraph No.2 of the said Government Order as follows:-

“2. The Voluntary Retirement scheme is applicab