The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Ernakulam Bench, on Tuesday asked the Centre and State governments to respond to a plea by former Vigilance Director and senior IPS officer Jacob Thomas for allowing him to retire from service under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).
In his petition, he said that non-consideration of his application for taking VRS by the Centre and State governments was arbitrary. He said he was not interested in working with the present State government in turbulent and adverse situations as he could not do justice to his job of public service. Therefore, he wanted a declaration of his voluntary retirement from service.
He said the State government did not permit him formally to take retirement on April 1 even though he stood relieved of all duties and responsibilities with effect from December 20, 2017 from the last post of Director General of the Institute of Management in Government.
In fact, he had applied for VRS after considerable thought and assessment. Besides, he was eligible to take VRS as he completed 30 years of service, as per rules. The governance system, of late, was observed to be one that favours the officers who kowtow to the dictates of persons in positions of various types of power, and does not favour an officer who kowtows to the aspirations and expectations of the poor and marginalised segments of society.
This was the primary reason why he was ejected out of such a system in 2017 and he still continued to be out of service. He sought to declare that his voluntary retirement should be effective from April 1, 2019 and a directive to disburse all service benefits and retirement benefits to him forthwith.
