Until the resignation becomes effective on the
terms of the letter read with Regulation 20, it is
open to the employee, on general principles, to
withdraw his letter of resignation. That is why, in
some cases of public services, this right of
withdrawal is also made subject ot the permission
of the employer. There is no such clause here. It is
not necessary to labour this point further as it is
well-settled by the earlier decisions of this Court in
Raj Kumar v. Union of India, Union of India v.
The principle as enunciated in the case of Shambhu Murari Sinha
(supra) that a person would have locus poenitentiae to withdraw
resignation tendered earlier, before the relationship of employer and
employee comes to an end, also applies here in this case, as
discussed above.
"3. The short question is whether the
appellant was entitled to withdraw his voluntary
retirement notice of three months submitted by him
on 3-10-1989 which was to come into effect form
31-1-1990. It is now well settled that even if the
voluntary retirement notice is moved by an
employee and gets accepted by the authority
within the time fixed, before the date of retirement
is reached, the employee has locus poenitentiae to
withdraw the proposal ofr voluntary retirement.
The said view has been taken by a Bench of this
Court in the case of Balram Gupta v. Union of
India. In view of the aforesaid decision of this
Court it cannot be said that the appellant had no
locus standi to withdraw his proposal for voluntary
retirement before 31-1-1990."
Similarly, in Gopal Chandra Misra's case
(supra), the Court has held that a 'prospective' resignation can be
withdrawn at any time before it becomes effective and the said
principle applies to the case of writ petitioner too. Why it was
'prospective' and was not effective on the date of withdrawal letter by
the petitioner, has been dealt with above and needs no reiteration.