New Delhi, Aug. 31 :     The Supreme Court today ruled that no government can deny voluntary retirement to an employee on grounds that the employee 'indulged or would indulge' in political activity. A division bench of Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Justice Shivraj V. Patel set aside verdicts on the matter by 'High Courts of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh'. 'The discretion of the management or authority to grant Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to an employee is not absolute and it is coupled with a duty,' the apex court said. Settling a four-year-old dispute, the court added that no 'unfettered discretion' was conferred on the government to refuse the scheme's benefit to an employee. Manjushree Pathak, an employee of the Assam Industrial Development Corporation Ltd., had sought voluntary retirement in 1996. But the corporation did not respond to her repeated letters. The corporation later sent a show cause notice to Pathak alleging that she was indulging in political activities and asking why her application should not be rejected. The high court, on a petition, said there was discretion vested in the corporation and hence an employee need not be essentially given VRS benefits, although it is made clear that once an employee sought VRS he could not go back on that. Setting aside the high court verdicts the apex court said: 'The high courts failed to see that the scheme conferred discretion on the corporation coupled with the duty to act judicially when application for voluntary retirement was made by an employee.' However, an organisation can refuse VRS to an employee if the employee is involved in a case or if he or she is wanted as a witness. This apart, there is a notice period which depends on the standing orders of individual organisations.