- (1.) The petitioner has approached this Court to impugn the order, whereby his request for grant of benefit of additional service of maximum 5 years towards qualifying service for pension has been declined. The petitioner joined Punjab National Bank as Clerk-cum-Cashier at the age of 20 years on 8.1.1965. He was selected for service in Hindustan Commercial Bank and so he relinquished his service with the Punjab National Bank on 9.5.1976. The petitioner then was 31 years and 8 months of age. He claims to have joined the service with Hindustan Commercial Bank without any interruption. The petitioner was given 8 advance increments for his past service rendered in Punjab National Bank and his experience was recorded in his service book.
(2.) In November 1986, Hindustan Commercial Bank merged with Punjab National Bank and the petitioner again became an employee of Punjab National Bank. There was no interruption of service. The petitioner has retired from service on 30.9.2004 on attaining the age of superannuation. The petitioner has claimed that his total service in these three spells works out to be 39 years and 6 months. The petitioner accordingly made representation for refixation of his pension, after giving him credit of his earlier spell of service with respondent-Bank from 8.1.1965 to 9.5.1976. Seeking support from Regulation 26 of Punjab National Bank Employees Pension Regulation, 1995, the petitioner has prayed for adding another 5 years of service to his qualifying service for pension. The petitioner submitted another representation on 6.2.2006, followed by a legal notice on 22.2.2008. The petitioner then received the impugned order, rejecting his prayer, on the basis of legal opinion to the contrary. The petitioner has accordingly filed this petition.
(3.) In the reply filed, the respondents would plead that there is no cause for the petitioner to file this writ petition, which is otherwise termed as suffering from laches on account of unexplained delay. The cause, if any, arose to the petitioner in the year 2004, when he retired but has filed this writ petition after 5 years in the year 2009. Respondents would also point out that the petitioner has not approached the Court with clean hands and has concealed the relevant true facts. It is averred that the petitioner had joined the Punjab National Bank on 8.1.1965 but had tendered his unconditional and voluntary resignation from service on 9.5.1976 to join Hindustan Commercial Bank. It is, thus, pointed out that he now can not take a 'U' turn for counting this service, from which he had submitted unconditional resignation. Rather, it is pointed out that the petitioner had voluntarily given up all his claims while tendering unconditional resignation on 9.5.1976 and, thus, his earlier service came to an end.;