Railway Radiographer Denied Credit For Postal Service After Failing To Disclose His Application On Joining Or Request Technical Resignation: CAT

The applicant joined the Department of Posts as a Postal Assistant on 5 July 2010.

He later sought and received an NOC to complete the selection process for a Radiographer post with North Western Railway, but the NOC required him to submit an unconditional resignation because he had not applied through the proper channel.

On 1 September 2016, he submitted an unconditional resignation, referring to personal and family reasons and stating that he would not claim service benefits; the Department accepted it with immediate effect on 29 September 2016.

He joined the Railway Department on 4 October 2016 and later asked his former employer to transfer his service and leave records and last pay certificate. The request was rejected on the basis of the terms of his resignation.

The applicant sought to have his resignation treated as a technical resignation and to receive continuity of service, pay protection, and consequential benefits. The Tribunal dismissed the application.

The Tribunal applied the Department of Personnel and Training’s instructions on technical resignation and lien, including the guidelines described as the O.M. dated 22 January 1993 and the consolidated instructions in the O.M. dated 26 December 2013.

Under those instructions, a resignation ordinarily entails forfeiture of past qualifying service; a technical resignation is an exception where the employee moves to another post after applying through the proper channel, or satisfies the prescribed conditions for an application made before joining Government service.

For the latter category, the employee must promptly disclose the earlier application upon joining, specifically request at resignation that it be treated as technical, and establish that the application could have been forwarded through the proper channel.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had not shown that he disclosed his Radiographer application when he joined the Department of Posts, or that he specifically requested at resignation that it be treated as a technical resignation.

His resignation instead cited personal and family reasons, described itself as unconditional, and included an undertaking not to claim future service benefits.

The Tribunal therefore held that he had not fulfilled the applicable conditions for preserving his past service; the NOC’s requirement of unconditional resignation did not establish entitlement to technical-resignation benefits.

It declined to interfere with the rejection letter dated 31 May 2017 and dismissed the O.A. on the merits. Pending M.A.s were disposed of, with no order as to costs.