New Delhi, April 27 (PTI): A government employee doesn’t have an automatic right to a voluntary retirement scheme merely because he was initially given an offer, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Setting aside a high court order, the apex court said when a VRS is floated, it constitutes only an offer to the employee but does not imply any obligation on the part of the employer.

“By reason of a mere offer to retire voluntarily, in terms where an employee was to get some more monetary benefits, by itself did not confer any legal right on him,” a bench of Justices S.B. Sinha and V.S. Sirpurkar said while upholding an appeal filed by the National Textile Corporation (NTC).

The court also said that a VRS claim could be made only when an employee was in service and not after his retirement.

The NTC had filed an appeal after Madhya Pradesh High Court upheld the claim of one of its employees, M.R. Jadhav, who had retired as assistant spinning master.

Jadhav had applied for VRS on May 16, 2000.

Although the NTC had granted his plea, the corporation, in a letter dated September 26, 2000, expressed its inability to accept his request and cited a financial crunch.

Jadhav retired on May 31, 2001, but pursued his case for VRS, and Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the NTC to concede his demand. The NTC appealed in the apex court.