An employee, before opting to go on a `voluntary retirement scheme' (VRS) in force in an organisation, ought to have verified whether he/she was eligible for pension under the statutory pension scheme. Once he had given an option to go on VRS, he could not turn back and say that he was eligible for pension whether he had put in minimum qualifying service or not, the Madras High Court has ruled.

The order came in response to a writ petition by Mr S. Rengaraj, an employee of the Punjab National Bank, Chennai, who chose to avail himself of the bank's VRS, pleaded for quashing the impugned order dated October 24, 2001 of the bank advising him that he should have put in minimum service of 15 years for purpose of getting pension. The employee had asked the bank to grant pensionary benefits to him on his voluntary retirement.

The bank argued that since the employee had not put in 15 years of service, he was not eligible for getting pension under the Pension Regulations, 1995.