Supreme Court: The Bench comprising of Arun Mishra and S Abdul Nazeer, JJ., while addressing a matter, stated that “voluntary retirement” cannot be sought as a right and the government can frame rules to deny pleas for quitting on a premature basis in public interest.
The Supreme Court Bench while upholding the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision of rejecting the request for voluntary retirement of some senior doctors stated that due to the shortage in the number of specialised doctors in government hospitals and looking at the public interest the decision of the State on the stated grounds is justified.
Further, the Supreme Court Bench while concluding its decision stated that the concept of public interest can also be invoked by the government when voluntary retirement sought by an employee would be against public interest. Poorest of the poor obtain treatment at government hospitals. They cannot be put at peril. The bench had come to the above conclusion, when the doctors had claimed the right to retire under Part III of the Constitution, for which the Court stated that such right cannot be supreme than Right to Life.
[Source: The Times of India]