A.R.Lakshmanan, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted.
(2.) THE Board of Trustees, Visakhapatnam Port Trust and others are the appellants before us and the respondents are employees of the said Port Trust. THE matter arises out of an insistence of two employees of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (in short 'the VPT') to seek retirement under a voluntary retirement scheme, even though, according to the employer Port Trust they are not entitled to avail the benefit of the scheme because they have attained the cut off age of 58 years before their cases could be considered. THE learned single Judge allowed the writ petition filed by the respondents and directed the Port Trust to consider and accept the voluntary retirement scheme (hereinafter called 'VRS') of the respondents as on their date of application and pass appropriate orders and pay all the benefits thereunder. However, the learned single Judge held that the respondents are not entitled for pension on the ground that they have retired on attaining the age of superannuation at the age of 60 years and they shall be entitled for pension as per the date of retirement under the VRS to be extended to the respondents. THE learned Single Judge further held that the salaries received by the respondents till their age of superannuation shall not be recovered if paid as they have worked. THE learned Judges of the Division Bench, by their order dated 21.11.2005 dismissed the appeal filed by the VPT and directed the VPT to pass orders on the applications of the respondents for voluntary retirement within a period of one month from the date of judgment. According to the VPT, both the learned single Judge and the Judges of the Division Bench of the High Court have mis-read the applicability of the Scheme and directed the VPT to consider and accept the case of the respondents and that such a direction is unsustainable in law and is likely to have a cascading effect. Therefore, the VPT have come before this Court through the above civil appeals arising out of Special Leave Petition Nos. 26322-26323 of 2005. The short facts relevant to the issue in dispute are as follows: With a view to reduce surplus manpower, the Union Ministry of Surface Transport (now called the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways - Department of Shipping) came out with a scheme of voluntary retirement. This was made applicable to all the Ports. The scheme of voluntary retirement was introduced in the appellant-VPT pursuant to the direction of the Ministry of Surface Transport contained in its letter No. LB-16016/7/88-L.II dated 29.08.1991. The said scheme is annexed as Annexure-P1 which reads as under: JUDGEMENT_219_TLPRE0_2006Html1.htm On 30.10.1991, the approval of the Board of Trustees of the appellant was sought for introducing the scheme of voluntary retirement. The terms and conditions of the scheme and its applicability were detailed therein. The scheme is annexed along with this appeal and marked as Annexure-P2 which is reproduced hereunder: JUDGEMENT_219_TLPRE0_2006Html2.htm
(3.) RESPONDENT No.1 T.S.N. Raju applied for voluntary retirement on 16.08.1999 but withdrew his application for VRS on 06.04.2000. He again applied for VRS on 27.04.2000. He averred in his writ petition that the application was made on the basis that Port has informally alerted that Management is serious about considering the request of the employees seeking VRS. In the counter affidavit filed by the VPT, it was categorically stated that the Management had issued no letter or circular to such effect. On 26.07.2000, respondent No.1 was promoted as Assistant Engineer (Civil) on ad hoc basis but he did not renew his application. Respondent No.2 - R. Rama Rao applied for VRS on 28.04.2000. In a meeting of the Heads of Department of the VPT, the concern expressed by the Secretary, Department of Shipping, Ministry of Surface Transport about the VRS was discussed. It was decided by the Chairman that the VRS should be considered in the cases of those employees who are below the age of 58 years. The said decision is annexed along with the appeal as Annexure-P3 which reads as under: JUDGEMENT_219_TLPRE0_2006Html3.htm ;