Service Law – Withdrawal of prospective resignation prior to the effective date – Permissibility:
Held: In the absence of anything contrary in the provisions governing the terms and conditions of the office or post and in the absence of any legal contractual or constitutional bar, a prospective resignation can be withdrawn at any time before it becomes effective – Prospective or intending resignation would be complete and operative on arrival of the indicated future date in the absence of anything contrary in the terms and conditions of the employment/contract – The intimation sent in writing to the Competent Authority by the incumbent employee of his intention or proposal to resign from his office/post from a future specified date can be withdrawn at any time before it becomes effective – Letter dtd. 25.03.2003 was an intimation of resignation from a prospective date 24.09.2003, which could have been withdrawn by the appellant prior to the effective date – There was no Rule/Regulation which restrained such withdrawal – There was no prior consent to the letter dtd. 08.04.2003 for accepting resignation w.e.f. 24.09.2003 as ‘final, binding and irrevocable’ and therefore, by using such words, the acceptance of resignation was unilateral – Withdrawal of such resignation by appellant prior to the effective date was permissible – Thus, the judgment of the House of Lords in “The Rev. Oswald Joseph Reichel Vs. The Right Rev. John Fielder” does not apply to the facts of the present case and the dismissal of the petition of appellant on similarity of facts with the said case was not correct and such findings by three fora are unsustainable – On facts, the ratio of the judgment of the Constitution Bench in Union of India and Others v. Gopal Chand Misra and Others [1978] 3 SCR applies in full force – Orders passed by the College Tribunal and the High Court set aside – Further, on peculiar facts of this case, respondent no.1 to regularize the service period of the appellant from 24.09.2003 (when they wrongly treated the appellant as having resigned) till the date of joining the duty at the new Institution as Principal on 01.10.2007 – Directions issued. [Paras 28, 12, 27, 21, 31 and 29]
Doctrines/Principles – Principle of “vinculum juris” – Discussed. [Para 24]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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