Resignation of bank employees cannot be treated as voluntary retirement: HC
Rejects plea of former bank employees for inclusion under pension scheme
In a setback to a group of former employees of banks, the Karnataka High Court has held that bank employees who have resigned from service cannot claim that their “resignation” should be treated as “voluntary retirement” to make them eligible for applying for the pension scheme.
Also, the court reiterated an earlier declaration that “once the period is over for opting for the pension scheme, the employees cannot be permitted to exercise their option for the scheme, as pension fund is created by surrender of the Contributory Provident Fund by the employees and hence the option for seeking the pension has to be exercised within a limited time frame.”
Justice Raghvendra S. Chauhan passed the order while dismissing petitions filed by P.D. Nanaiah and 150 other former employees of banks. The petitioners had resigned from service between 2007 and 2010.
The court also said it cannot order extending of the pension scheme’s benefit to the present petitioners based on the High Court’s April 18, 2012 judgment, which had quashed a clause in the pension scheme barring extension of the scheme to resigned employees, and had directed grant of pension to those resigned employees who had approached the High Court.
Justice Chauhan, citing an apex court verdict on delay in approaching courts, said the benefit of the 2012 judgment cannot be extended to the present petitioners as they had approached court after a delay of four years as the pension scheme was announced back in 2010.
The present petitioners “chose to wait and watch the outcome of series of litigation pending between their other colleagues and the respondent bank”, and approached the HC only in 2014 after the Supreme Court in December 2013 upheld the High Court’s April 2012 judgment in petitions filed by C. Narasimhappa and Others vs Vijaya Bank.
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