Chandigarh, March 11: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a health department employee, ruling that a proposal for voluntary retirement cannot be withdrawn “at sweet will” once it has been accepted by the competent authority. Justice Namit Kumar, while presiding over the case, observed that allowing such casual reversals would place the government in administrative difficulty and undermine the certainty of service rules.
The court asserted that while an employee has the “locus poenitentiae” to withdraw a proposal within the notice period prior to its acceptance, this right does not survive once the formal order is issued. Justice Namit Kumar maintained that a government servant who submits such a proposal without analyzing its future perspectives cannot be allowed to retract it without valid reasons after the government has already acted upon the request. The Bench declared that the distinction between resignation and voluntary retirement is fundamental, as the latter requires a prescribed period of qualifying service and follows a specific legal framework.
The case involved a multipurpose health supervisor from a primary health centre in Nawanshahr district, who had initially sought voluntary retirement in October 2023. The petitioner had even deposited over Rs 2.69 lakh in lieu of a notice period to expedite his retirement. However, more than a month after the formal acceptance in January 2024, the employee sought to cancel the notice and rejoin service. The High Court upheld the department’s decision to reject this request, affirming that since the retirement was accepted at the petitioner’s persistent request, the right to retract the decision no longer remained valid.
