IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE EIGHTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE L.NARASIMHA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 5418 of 2006 Between: P.L.N. Sarma, S/o. P.L. Narasimha Rao, R/o. H.No.59, Road No.2, New Nagole, Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Indian Bank, rep. by its Chairperson and Managing Director, Head Office, 31, Rajaji Salai, Chennai-600001. 2 The Assistant General Manager, Indian Bank, Head Office, Personnel Department, Rajaji Salai, Chennai-600001. 3 The General Manager, Indian Bank, Circle Office, Himayath Nagar, Hyd. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order, or direction and in particular issue a Writ in the nature of Mandamus; a) by declaring the letter No.VRS- 2000/11412 dt. 07.05.2001 communicated by the 4th respondent as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional and also the action of the Respondent No. S1 & 2 in not considering petitioners various representations dt. 15.10.2005, 04.01.2006 and 02.03.2006 as bad and illegal. b) Further consequently issue a direction to the respondent Bank to consider the petitioners application under the Indian Bank Employees Voluntary Retirement Scheme 2000 and further grant him all the other beneﬁts under the aforesaid scheme, c) And pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.W.B.SRINIVAS Counsel for the Respondents: MR.AMBADIPUDI SATYANARAYANA The Court made the following ORDER: The petitioner is working as a Senior Manager in Indian Bank. The Bank introduced Voluntary Retirement Scheme in the year 2000 to enable its employees to go on voluntary retirement, on fulﬁllment of certain conditions. The petitioner exercised the option and accordingly, made an application, within the stipulated time. However, it was rejected, vide orders, dated 07.05.2001, on the ground that it does not conform to the eligibility criterion. He approached the Appellate Authority complaining that no reasons are mentioned in the order of rejection and asserting that his application completely accords with the Scheme. The Appellate Authority, in turn, passed an order, dated 24.09.2005, stating that the reasons for rejection have already been conveyed to the petitioner, vide order, dated 07.05.2001, by the competent authority. This writ petition is ﬁled challenging the action of the respondents in not accepting the application submitted by the petitioner for voluntary retirement under the Scheme of the year 2000. The respondents ﬁled a counter-aﬃdavit opposing the claim made by the petitioner. Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Bank, at length. Though there is some dispute as to the fulﬁllment of the conditions by the petitioner vis-à-vis the Voluntary Retirement Scheme of the year 2000, the necessity, for this Court, to delve into the same is obviated, on account of certain developments. Having ﬁled this writ petition, the petitioner ﬁled an application, dated 21.02.2007, in terms of Regulation 29 of the Pension Regulations, 1995 (for short ‘the Regulations’) for voluntary retirement. It is no doubt true that the application was also turned down by the Bank on the ground that it is burdened with conditions. The petitioner, in turn, ﬁled W.P.No.8333 of 2008, assailing the order of rejection. In view of the fact that the petitioner had chosen to submit application under Regulation 29 of the Regulations, the application made by the petitioner under Voluntary Retirement Scheme of the year 2000, virtually becomes redundant. In that view of the matter, the writ petition is closed, leaving it open to the petitioner to pursue his remedies in relation to the application ﬁled by him under Regulation 29 of the Regulations. There shall be no order as to costs. __________________ L.NARASIMHA REDDY,J Dt:08.08.2008 kdl ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{JGK}