CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has quashed the state government order rejecting the voluntary retirement from service (VRS) application of an orthopaedics professor Dr Rabi Narayan Dhar on grounds of faculty shortage.
The single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra has held such action of the government as illegal.
After a stint of 27 years in government service, Dr Dhar had applied for VRS under Rule-42 of the Odisha Civil Service (Pension) Rules, 1992, citing health ailment and some private/personal difficulties on December 27, 2023. He was then professor orthopaedics at PIGMER and Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
The state government rejected it citing dearth of faculty in the medical colleges in Odisha on the ground of public interest on February 8, 2024. Dr Dhar had challenged it in the high court on August 20, 2024.
While disposing of the petition on Wednesday, Justice Mohapatra observed that Rule-42 of the OCS (Pension) Rules, 1992, does not specify the ground on which an application can or cannot be made by a government servant seeking voluntary retirement. It is an open provision subject to condition that the government servant seeking voluntary retirement must have completed 20 years of qualifying service and must have given a notice of not less than three months to the appointing authority.
“In view of the aforesaid analysis of law as well as keeping in view the factual matrix involved in the present petition, this court has no hesitation in coming to a conclusion that the state authorities have committed an illegality by rejecting the application of the petitioner seeking VRS from service,” Justice Mohapatra ruled.
Justice Mohapatra directed the state government to accept his VRS with effect from the date of expiry of the three months notice period calculated from the date of his initial application which was submitted on December 27, 2023.
“Moreover, it is made clear that if the petitioner is continuing in service and discharging his duties, he shall be paid his salary and other emoluments for the period for which he has rendered his services,” Justice Mohapatra further said, adding, his retiral dues as well as pensionary benefits should be processed within a period of three months.
During his 27 years of service, Dr Dhar had served as assistant professor and associate professor at SCB Medical College and Hospital (Cuttack) and VIMSAR (Burla) respectively, and professor at BB Medical College and Hospital (Koraput), BBMCH, Bolangir and PIGMER Capital Hospital.